And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street, 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, 1937. First edition, fourteenth printing. Hardcover. This fourteenth printing of Dr. Seuss’s first 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
“Because the thinking of the time dictated that children’s stories should be morally uplifting and educational, twenty-seven publishers rejected the manuscript because its illustrations were too bizarre and its message too amoral. Luckily an old Dartmouth pal who had just become children’s editor for Vanguard Press loved the manuscript and in 1937 published it as And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.” (ANB) This book is one of the six now-suppressed Dr. Seuss titles, no longer published due to alleged insensitivity therein.
“Fourteenth Printing” appears on the title page verso. The dust jacket is nearly identical to that of the first printing, differing only in inclusion of a blurb from Ann Carroll Moore from The Atlantic Monthly at the foot of the front flap, replacing the first printing’s printed “$1.00” price, and in blue shorts on the front face (rather than the white of the first state jacket) on the front face. While we do not know the date of the fourteenth printing, certainly it occurred before this copy was purchased and inscribed in the fall of 1963.
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 very good minus in a fair dust jacket. The matte paper-covered boards remain bright, the binding firmly attached, with edgewear, including spine end bumps, and light spotting to the covers. The contents have spotting to the endpapers but are otherwise bright. 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 shows significant wear and partial splitting to the spine, with appreciable loss to spine ends, trivial loss to the flap fold corners, and overall spotting and light soiling. The unclipped front flap features no price, though “295” is written in pencil on the upper front flap. 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 1, pp. 14-16. Item #008826
Price: $2,000.00