The Cat in the Hat, purchased and inscribed for a young mother in 1963 at a bookshop one mile from Dr. Seuss’s La Jolla, California home.
New York: Random House, 1957. First edition, early printing. Hardcover. This first edition, early printing, of one of the most iconic books by one of the world's most iconic children's authors was inscribed by Dr. Seuss for a young mother in 1963 at a bookshop one mile from Dr. Seuss’s home in La Jolla, California. It was acquired by us directly from the person for whom this book was purchased, to whom it was inscribed, and whose family enjoyed this book for three generations. This copy is inscribed on the lower left corner of the front free endpaper verso in four lines “for | JiLL | with Best Wishes | Dr. Seuss” with a characteristic Dr. Seuss squiggle between the valediction and signature.
Condition
As Dr. Seuss surely intended when he signed this copy for a young mother in 1963, this book has been read, a lot, and then some more. If you seek a pristine, “trophy” copy, this book is not for you. Instead, it is imbued with provenance and story.
This copy is an early printing (definitively 1963 or before since that was the year it was purchased and inscribed). The dust jacket and front cover differ in various respects from those of the first printing. Condition is very good minus in a very good minus dust jacket. The glossy paper-covered boards binding is bright, tight, and square, though with light overall scuffing, including shallow horizontal indentations to the front cover. Regarding the indentations, their pattern makes it seem as if the book was once briefly used as a hard surface beneath a piece of paper on which a child swiftly moved a pencil back and forth. Minor shelf wear to extremities occasionally exposes white paper beneath the glossy surface, particularly at the corners and spine ends. The contents are bright, with light spotting primarily confined to the page edges and first (though p.3) and final leaves. Dr. Seuss’s inscription, inked in blue on the lower left front free endpaper verso, is bright and clean. Affixed to the lower left rear pastedown is the printed and illustrated ticket of “John Cole’s Book & Craft Shop” in La Jolla, California, where this book was purchased and inscribed in the fall of 1963, the shop located one mile from the La Jolla home of Dr. Seuss. The dust jacket is bright and complete, the printed “195/195” at the upper right front flap intact. The rear face highlights the publisher's "Beginner Books" division founded in 1957 by Phyllis Cerf, Dr. Seuss, and his wife, Helen Palmer Geisel, on the stunning success of this book. There is a vertical spine crease, light wear to the hinges, joints, and spine, and minor soiling overall, noticeable only to the white rear face. The jacket is protected beneath a clear, removable, archival cover.
The cat that made Dr. Seuss and changed books for children
The Cat in the Hat, published in 1957, was the result of a joint venture between Houghton Mifflin and Random House. While Geisel was under contract with Random House, Houghton Mifflin approached him to write a children's book using only vocabulary from a list of 225 words for early readers. Due to his contract, Random House retained the trade publication rights while Houghton Mifflin obtained the school rights. By all accounts, Geisel underestimated the challenge of working within the confines of the word list. "Seuss was used to inventing words when he needed them, so to stick to a word list was a huge challenge for him," and it reportedly took him a year and a half to write the book. Intended by the publisher as a children's primer, the book vastly exceeded expectations, and its huge success made "Dr. Seuss" a household name. The Cat in the Hat also revolutionized the conventional approach to children's primers. The book was so successful that Random House created a special division, Beginner Books, with the Cat in the Hat as the logo and Dr. Seuss as president of the division.
Provenance
This book’s life story is as compelling as the story within. In 1959, the family of the “Jill” to whom this book is inscribed moved from Los Angeles to Point Loma in San Diego – a beautiful peninsula protecting San Diego’s vaunted natural harbor. Point Loma is just a few miles south of La Jolla, the seaside promontory to which Dr. Seuss had moved in 1948, where he lived the rest of his life, and where he wrote the majority of his books.
In July 1963, Jill had her first child – a boy, Jeff. For Jill’s birthday that November, her mom decided to give her a gift that she could share with her new baby. Jill’s mom was friends with Barbara Cole, proprietor of John Cole’s Books in La Jolla, and Barbara was friends with Dr. Seuss, who lived exactly one mile away from the shop. So, with Barbara’s help, Jill’s mom got Dr. Seuss to inscribe 22 brand new copies of his books – of which this is one – in the fall of 1963. Jill read and reread these books to Jeff and his little sister, Lauren, born in 1966, throughout their childhood. Jill and her husband raised Jeff and Lauren in Point Loma, in the same house where, eventually, they read and reread this and their other Dr. Seuss books to their granddaughters, just as they had once read them to their children.
With both children and grandchildren grown, Jill decided to entrust her Dr. Seuss books to us. Hence we now offer this book from their collection to a new owner for the first time since it was purchased for Jill by her mom and inscribed by Dr. Seuss in 1963.
Reference: Younger & Hirsch, First Editions of Dr. Seuss Books, 2002, with 2004 corrections, Entry 7, pp. 26-28. Item #008811
Price: $1,250.00