Rare Book Monthly

Articles - July - 2017 Issue

A Dr. Seuss Museum Opens in His Hometown

The Amazing World of Dr Seuss (Springfield Museum's photo).

The Amazing World of Dr Seuss (Springfield Museum's photo).

It isn't a medical museum, but a museum has just opened in Springfield, Massachusetts to celebrate the life of America's foremost "doctor." Rather than a physician, Theodor Geisel was an author, and if his actual name is not familiar to you, his pen name, Dr. Seuss, certainly is. It opened on June 3, and according to the museum, 3,000 people showed up, many of whom had to be turned away for another day. Only 1,800 tickets were available.

 

The museum is mostly focused on Seuss' career as a children's book writer, with the first floor devoted to exhibits and activities designed to appeal to the young. However, the good doctor had a career before the one for which he is remembered. He was born and raised in Springfield, hence the museum's location. He graduated from Dartmouth, and attended Oxford, seeking a doctorate in literature. However, he returned home in 1927, and instead, put his unique drawing talents to work. He provided illustrations for magazines, and then advertisements. While his advertising characters were not the same ones used in his children's books, they certainly had the distinctive whimsical characteristics of Seuss' later children's book illustrations.

 

In 1937, Seuss (his mother's maiden name) wrote his first children's book, And to Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street. He wrote a few more children's titles over the next few years, but then the war intervened. He focused his art on political cartoons, posters to support the war effort, and films for the Army during this period. It left behind the most controversial part of his legacy (more on this later). After the war, Seuss returned to writing children's books. In 1954, after a Life Magazine article on children's illiteracy, his publisher challenged him to write a book that younger children could not only read, but would actually want to. If you ever endured a Dick and Jane book, you will understand the need for that challenge. The result was The Cat in the Hat, probably his most famous title.

 

Seuss continued writing books for children in the years ahead, though he never had children himself. He was happy to entertain other people's children, and not have to entertain any of his own. He was quite content with that. Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel died in 1991 at the age of 87.

 

The first floor of The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss is devoted to the children. It provides images of favorite Seuss characters with interactive activities. You will meet such characters as Horton the Elephant, Thing 1 and Thing 2, and the stack of turtles from Yertle the Turtle. Ted Geisel's boyhood home has been partly recreated. There is his bedroom, and his grandparents' bakery and brewery. There is Fairfield Street, where Geisel grew up, and Mulberry Street, another actual street in Springfield.

 

Upstairs, there are mementos of his adult life in La Jolla, California. It has furniture and knick knacks from his studio and his home, including his drawing board, oil paintings, breakfast table, sofa, armchair, and furniture from his studio and waiting room. There is even a collection of his funny hats and over 100 bow ties. The personal items were given to the museum by Seuss' 95-year-old second wife, and his two stepdaughters, who have been very supportive of the project.

 

What is missing, and led to some controversy in stories about the grand opening, is his wartime material. This is deliberate, the museum being focused on his children's works. Geisel was a humanitarian, progressive person for his time. He was very pro-American during the war, and strongly favored America's joining up with its western allies before America entered the war. Though ethnically German, he was a vehement critic of the Nazis, Charles Lindbergh, and the isolationist America First movement. He was sympathetic to the plight of Jews and blacks. Where all of this becomes more controversial is in his attitude at the time to the Japanese.

 

Here we really need to understand his times before becoming too critical of Geisel. Few in America were very sympathetic to the Japanese after Pearl Harbor, and sadly, that included attitudes toward Japanese-American citizens. After all, we did place them in internment camps. Geisel's cartoons were at times stereotypically racist in the way they depicted the Japanese, and he didn't much differentiate between the Japanese and Japanese Americans. Then again, how many Americans did at that time?

 

Washington owned slaves, Lincoln was willing to guarantee the survival of slavery in the South prior to the beginning of the Civil War. For their shortcomings in hindsight, they were still well ahead of their times in their times. The same can be said of Geisel/Seuss, whose views toward the Japanese slowly evolved after the war. His 1954 book, Horton Hears a Who!, whose message is brotherhood of all, was written after a visit to Japan and is dedicated to a Japanese friend. Dr. Seuss wasn't perfect, but he was a very good man who brought unparalleled joy to generations of children past, and will continue that gift to generations of children in the future. If you're in the vicinity of Springfield, drop by his "home."

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby’s
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    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
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  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
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    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
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    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.

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