THE 500 HATS OF BARTHOLOMEW CUBBINS

New York: Vanguard, 1938. Near fine in very good jacket.. Signed early printing of Seuss's second book. 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 cap, and a particularly ornate Czech army helmet" (Jones). This copy comes directly from the stock of Aleph-Bet Books, the firm of Seuss bibliographers Helen Younger and Marc Younger. 12'' x 9''. Original cloth backed pictorial boards. In original price-clipped dust jacket. Revised endpapers. Mulberry Street priced at $1.00 on jacket flap. Signed by Seuss on verso of front free endpaper. Slight soil in gutters, else fine, with absolutely no rubbing of the boards. Jacket slightly chipped. (Inventory #: 34279)