Lost Dr. Seuss Book Published And Released Today By Random House
A lost Dr. Seuss book, thought to have been originally written in the 50s or 60s, was published by Random House Children’s Books on Tuesday, July 28.
Theodor Seuss Geisel, Dr. Seuss himself, ranked on Amazon.com at No. 6 in the Top 100 Authors Overall on Monday, July 27.
His lost work is entitled What Pet Should I Get? He penned the work before his death in 1991. The first printing was set at one million copies, and, also as of Monday, July 27, the book was already the #1 Bestseller in Children’s Pet Books on Amazon by pre-sales alone.
Cathy Goldsmith, a publisher of Seussian literature, shared the following anecdote in a statement by Random House.
“Shortly after Dr. Seuss died his widow did some renovations in the house and I think the box was packed up then and just forgotten about. I went literally running down the hall to my bosses office and said they found a box. They want us to come and look. We were literally on a plane like three business days later!”
Publisher’s Weekly reported that, according to RH, the material was found by Geisel’s widow, Audrey Geisel, and his longtime secretary and friend, Claudia Prescott, in the fall of 2013.
“We had no idea what we were in store for when Claudia notified us of the materials discovered in Ted’s home,” shared Susan Brandt, President, Licensing and Marketing, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. “Pages and pages of manuscripts and sketches were laid out on the big glass dining room table. It was truly a magical moment, and we immediately knew this was more than just a box of sketches.”
The text and illustrations for What Pet Should I Get? were almost fully completed. The man known and beloved as Dr. Seuss, Geisel typically completed his black-and-white line art illustrations first. He filled in color later.
The book stars the brother and sister from One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. As One Fish Two Fish… was published in 1960, according to Seussian experts, What Pet Should I Get? had to have been penned by Geisel, AKA Dr. Seuss, “somewhere between 1958 and 1962.”
The lost box contained more than one book!
In a statement, RH said that “two or more books derived from the found work” are in the works and will soon be released.
One book. Two Book… at least two more books to come. Wait… three new Seuss books?
“Make up your mind” is the running theme for the charming rhyme, with Brother and Sister having to select a pet to take home from the pet store.
How is it that even 25 years after his death, Dr. Seuss can still daze grown adults worldwide back into a childhood state?
Dr. Seuss’ wife called him Ted.
“While undeniably special, it is not surprising to me that we found this because Ted always worked on multiple projects and started new things all the time—he was constantly writing and drawing and coming up with ideas for new stories,” said Audrey Geisel.
Per CBS News, Bill Dreyer, the Curator for the Art of Seuss, commented, “Dr. Seuss is more popular now than he was during his lifetime.”
Dreyer continued. “In the 25 years since he’s now been gone, another 450 million books have been sold.”
2015 also marks the 25th anniversary of Geisel’s final book, Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Goldsmith worked on the final work released by Ted as Dr. Seuss.
As Geisel’s former art director, Goldsmith is the only remaining Random House Books for Young Readers executive to have worked with Geisel before his death.
The Inquisitr recently reported that actor Rainn Wilson will narrate the audio version of What Pet Should I Get?
One lost book. Now a found book. Now a published book! Buy your book. Only one million copies out there, and an opportunity to own a first edition Dr. Seuss isn’t going to last.
[Photos via The Guardian, Amazon.com, The New York Times]
