first edition
1957 · New York
by Seuss, Dr
New York: Random House, 1957. Very good.. First edition of this subversive update to DICK AND JANE — one of a small group with jackets lacking a printed price, issued between the transition from the "200/200" of the first state and the "195/195" of the second. Challenged to create a reader for young children using only 220 different words, Seuss tricked kids into enjoying learning with his destructive and charismatic house guest. Inspired in part by Krazy Kat and Felix the Cat, but with a wily mind all his own, the Cat in the Hat's humor and naughtiness are engaged in the noble cause of literacy. "Parents," notes biographer Brian Jay Jones, "were more (truncated)