Beschreibung:

SEUSS, Dr. (Pseudonym of Theodore GEISEL, 1904-1991). And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street . New York: The Vanguard Press, 1937. 4 o. Color and black-and-white illustrations by the author. Original pictorial boards, decorated endpapers (some wear and chips along spine, light wear at extremities, some red crayon markings on rear cover). Provenance : Helene C. McClintock (presentation inscription from the author). THE DEDICATION COPY OF SEUSS'S FIRST CHILDREN'S BOOK FIRST EDITION, THE DEDICATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY DR. SEUSS TO THE WIFE OF HIS EDITOR AT VANGUARD PRESS, HELENE McCLINTOCK, on the verso of the front free endpaper: "To Helene, with thanks for the use of Marco (to say nothing of the use of Mike) -- Ted (Dr. Seuss)." Ted Geisel (his mother's maiden name was Seuss) spent his early adulthood very much focused on academics, rather than whimsical rhymes. He studied English literature and edited the school humor magazine while a student at Dartmouth College and after his graduation in 1921 briefly attended Lincoln College at Oxford University to pursue a graduate degree. In 1926, deciding to abandon academics for a career as an illustrator, he returned to his hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts and began sending humorous pieces and cartoons to newspapers and magazines. Encouraged by the sale of a cartoon for $25 to Life magazine, Geisel moved to New York, married Helen Palmer (whom he'd met at Oxford) and established himself as a commercial artist. During this period, he created the advertising campaign for "Flit" insecticide, an account which provided him with financial security for the seventeen years that it survived. Other advertising work, for the likes of Standard Oil of New Jersey, Ford Motor Company and NBC, also proved lucrative for the young artist. In 1931, Geisel found a larger creative outlet illustrating Boners , a collection of children's sayings written by various authors. Its success was enough to warrant a second volume called More Boners . It was not until 1936, however, that Geisel's artistic development truly took root. It was in this year that he and Helen boarded the new Swedish American luxury liner, the M.S. Kungsholm , to sail abroad. Returning home, Geisel was in a somber mood with images of war-torn Europe in his mind, and he decided aboard the Kungsholm that while it was interesting to illustrate someone else's words, as in Boners , it was time to get serious about his work and create his own children's tale. Horrendous storms pounded the ship on their return, making it impossible for Geisel to get settled. He fought off seasickness with a vodka on the rocks and two sheets of writing paper. Sitting on the upper-deck lounge, he began, "A stupid horse and wagon..." For eight days on the ship, "the chugging rhythm of its engines reverberated in Ted's head: Da-da-DA-da-da-DUM-DUM, da-DA-da-da-DUM" (this and the following quotations are from Judith and Neil Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, A Biography , New York, 1996, pp.81-82). He began to recite his words to a similar rhythm, starting with that of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," but soon crafted the rhythmic refrain, "And that is a story that no one can beat, and to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street." The incessant rhythm churning through his mind drove him "nuts." At Helen's urging, "and as what he hoped would be therapy, he set out to develop a story around the rhythm, using the shipboard notes." Geisel laboriously worked on his manuscript, spending six months on revision before he was satisfied enough to take the book to publishers. He carried the manuscript around Manhattan marketing it as A Story That No One Can Beat . A battery of rejections beat him back. In all, during the winter of 1936-37, twenty-seven publishers rejected the book. The main complaint: there was no moral message. He balked to his wife: "What's wrong with kids having fun reading without being preached at?" On the day of his twenty-seventh rejecti