Dr. Seuss: A First Edition of The Lorax

Today Tom Bloom provides us with a scan of a first edition of The Lorax (1971), Dr. Seuss's influential children's book warning of the dangers of plundering our environment. The Lorax, as Tom likes to remind me, holds pride of place up in the header of this blog, a quotation from the book filling the space where a blog description is meant to go.

The Seuss quotation is, I think, a delightful but ultimately imperfect choice on my part. It is intended by the good Dr. Seuss to be a criticism of unbridled commercialism. In the context of this blog, though, any contemplation of the market's supposed excesses is necessarily tempered by a certain wonderment with the many unique items out there. To wit:

The Lorax (1971)
Dr. Seuss

Scan by Tom Bloom

I do have a runner-up quotation in reserve. It is for use in the unlikely event that I'm ever willing to part with the Lorax. It's the "Happy Thought" by Robert Louis Stevenson, verse XXIV from A Child's Garden of Verses.

  "The world is so full of a number of things,
  I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."

This is such a positive ideal, but I'm afraid in the context of this blog it could be perceived as too materialistic. Stevenson's "things" I take to be much broader than the physical objects in any of my blog posts; he is asking us to seek happiness in all the world's wonders and not just, say, in first editions.

Note:  My thanks to Tom Bloom for the scan, which makes me happy as a king. Tom just helped out in identifying one of the New Yorker Profiles illustrators in my post on Hendrik Willem van Loon, so by my reckoning we are now at his thirteenth contribution to this blog.

Here's how the quotation that appears above all my posts appears in the book:

http://ouallinator.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/The-Lorax-storybook-2.pdf

Surprisingly, my adopted quotation actually does not occur in the animated television special that served as my own first encounter with the Lorax. It has been rewritten (by Dr. Seuss himself, I believe). You may view it at 6:13 in the video. "The birth of an industry! You poor stupid guy: You telling me what the public will buy?" That variant, alas, will never appear in my header.

"The Lorax" (1972)

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Dr. Seuss

Robert Louis Stevenson

Tom Bloom

Attempted Bloggery's Index Speaks for the Trees

03370

Edward Gorey's Jekyll & Hyde

"Mystery!" presented "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" on PBS and Edward Gorey illustrated the 1981 poster. Gorey does a fine job depicting the two natures of Jekyll and Hyde.

Edward Gorey, "Mystery!" Presents "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde," poster, 1981

Edward Gorey poster

http://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=2349+++++271+&refno=++687875&saletype=

Note:  Get into the Halloween spirit with my most chilling blog posts.

It's also the perfect time of year to survey the older posts about Edward Gorey.

01319

First Edition: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The first English edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" hit the bookstalls in January of 1886, although the year 1885 had been printed on the cover. Publication was postponed to avoid competition with seasonal Christmas books; hence the date had to be corrected by hand. This edition cost only a shilling. It was to prove Stevenson's most enduring shorter work of fiction.

This copy will be offered at Swann Galleries on November 18.

Robert Louis Stevenson, "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" first edition, 1886

http://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=2366+++++210+&refno=++696869&saletype=

Note:  Check out my book review of Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson.

01309

Book Review: Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

Kidnapped (1886)

Robert Louis Stevenson

I started this book as a youth, but I abandoned it along the way for reasons I don't now recall. Today, coming back to Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson years later, I am stunned to find I don't recall a single word or event from even the beginning of the tale. So it goes.

The story is surprisingly political, full of Scottish clan maneuvering and Jacobite intrigue. I've recently read The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory and A Spectacle of Corruption by David Liss, historical novels set in approximately this era with a decidedly British bent, but this particular book's political perspective was more that of Scotland.

I suppose I was expecting more of a swashbuckling adventure. The story is absolutely an adventure of sorts, but it is also a tale of family betrayal, of an odd friendship, and of local clan rivalries. It ends up following quite a more meandering course than Stevenson's Treasure Island, for example.

382