Forgotten Dr Seuss Stories to be Published

At the time of his death on September 24, 1991, Theodor Seuss Geisel (better known as Dr. Seuss and sometimes Theo LeSieg) had written and illustrated 44 children's books, including such all-time favourites as 'Green Eggs and Ham', 'The Cat in the Hat', 'Oh, the Places You'll Go', 'Fox in Socks', and one of my favourites, 'I Wish that I had Duck Feet'.  But twenty years after his death we are going to see a new Dr Seuss book published.

Dr. Seuss's art director Cathy Goldsmith announced recently that there were some long-lost stories by Dr Seuss that had never been published in book form.  The stories were apparently found being offered on eBay. She knew almost immediately that being able to acquire them and then republishing them would be a wonderful idea.

In September this year, some ten years after discovering them, Random House will publish the strories. The volume will be called 'The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories' (Random, 2011), and will be a collection of stories that were written and published as magazine pieces early in Theodor Seuss Geisel's career. 

Cathy Goldsmith has indicated that the new book will have seven stories, 'The Bear, the Rabbit, and the Zinniga-Zanniga', 'Gustav the Goldfish', 'Tadd and Todd', 'Steak for Supper', 'The Great Henry McBride', 'The Strange Shirt Spot' and 'The Bippolo Seed'. The book will be slightly smaller than quarto size (8 x 11 inches), a format that is similar to the classic 'Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories' (Random, 1958). Goldsmith indicates that the stories and illustrations are true to Dr Seuss's later work:

"The stories are really very, very good and anyone of them could be a book in itself. If ever there's persistence of memory, then Ted had certain fixated ideas. Ted's books all look alike. His rabbits, bears, and fish look alike. You could make an argument that some of these are an early genesis of other stories. The one story in here that feels like a real predecessor is The Strange Shirt Spot, which is similar to The Cat in The Hat Comes Back" (Random, 1957)

Other reading

You can read a full interview with Cathy Goldsmith about the new book HERE.
You can read my previous post 'Author Focus: Dr Seuss' HERE