The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, purchased and inscribed for a young mother in 1963 at a bookshop one mile from Dr. Seuss’s La Jolla, California home.
New York: The Vanguard Press, 1938. First edition, later printing. Hardcover. This later printing of Dr. Seuss’s second book for children 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.
Edition
One of Dr. Seuss’s early prose efforts, this second story for children followed 1937’s And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins was Seuss’s first story to feature the titular Bartholomew, who would reappear in 1949’s Bartholomew and the Oobleck.
This is an early printing, with no further print history on the title page, but just exactly when it was printed between 1938 and 1963, when it was purchased and inscribed, is unknown. The dust jacket is nearly identical to that of the first printing, differing only in “$2.95” on the lower front flap in lieu of the first printing’s “$1.50” and in no listing of “Mulberry Street - $1.00” on the lower rear flap. The endpapers are definitively later printing, with smaller hats on the front pastedown progressing to larger hats on the front free endpaper recto (rather than the reverse in the first printing).
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.
Condition is very good minus in a fair dust jacket. The quarter cloth binding, featuring matte black-paper-covered boards and red linen spine, is tight and bright, with light overall scuffing and edgewear, particularly to the corners. The contents are clean and bright apart from a few instances of light soiling – plausibly from fingers – at pages 2, 26 & 27. Trivial hints of spotting appear confined to the page edges. 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. The dust jacket retains good color and is unclipped, the original “2.95” lower front flap price intact. Nonetheless, the jacket shows considerable scuffing and edge wear, with loss, closed tears, and creasing most prominent to the lower spine, less significant to the flap fold corners and extremities. The dust jacket is protected beneath a clear, removable, archival cover.
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 22, pp. 62-64. Item #008825
Price: $1,200.00