first edition
1938 · New York
by Seuss, Dr
New York: Vanguard, 1938. Very good in very good plus to near fine jacket.. First edition of Seuss's second book, a HORNBOOK review copy with their name stamped on the front endpaper. In this fairy tale a little boy finds himself in trouble with a king when he is unable to remove his hat, growing another as each is displaced. The story was inspired in part by a train ride in which Seuss became annoyed with a neighboring rider's hat – which he then began to daydream about removing by force. The proliferation of hats, however, was more directly influenced by Seuss's own collecting: he had almost 100 different hats, including "fire hats, a feathered admiral's (truncated)