Theodor Seuss Geisel

First edition of Seuss's second book, a Hornbook review copy with their name stamped on the front endpaper.

• Dr. Seuss (American).
• New York: Vanguard, (1938).
• [48] pages. 
• Illustrated throughout in black and white with only Bartholomew's hat in red. 
• Original cloth backed pictorial boards, in original unclipped ($1.50) dust jacket, supplied from another copy, red pictorial endpapers with larger hats on pastedowns, red "Horn Book" stamp on front free endpaper.

In this fairy tale a little boy finds himself in trouble with a king when he is unable to remove his hat, growing another as each is displaced. The story was inspired in part by a train ride in which Seuss became annoyed with a neighboring rider's hat – which he then began to daydream about removing by force. The proliferation of hats, however, was more directly influenced by Seuss's own collecting: he had almost 100 different hats, including "fire hats, a feathered admiral's cap, and a particularly ornate Czech army helmet" (Jones).

Perhaps the hardest to find first edition of all of Seuss's books, this copy comes directly from the stock of Aleph-Bet Books, the firm of Seuss bibliographers Helen Younger and Marc Younger.