The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories

Last updated
The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories
The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories cover.jpg
AuthorDr. Seuss
Genre Children's literature
Publisher Redbook (magazines)
Random House (book)
Publication date
June/August/November 1950 ("Gustav the Goldfish", "Tadd and Todd" and "Steak for Supper")
February/June/September/November 1951 ("The Rabbit, the Bear and the Zinniga-Zanniga", "The Bippolo Seed", "The Strange Shirt Spot" and "The Great Henry McBride")
September 27, 2011
Preceded by Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!  
Followed by Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories  

The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories is a collection of seven illustrated stories by children's author Dr. Seuss published by Random House on September 27, 2011. Though they were originally published in magazines in the early 1950s, they had never been published in book form and are quite rare, described by the publisher as "the literary equivalent of buried treasure". [1] The stories were discovered by Charles D. Cohen, a Massachusetts dentist and a Seuss scholar and biographer, who also wrote an introduction to the collection.

Contents

Plots

The seven stories included in the book are: [1]

Publication

The collection was published by Random House on September 27, 2011. [2] The stories originally appeared in magazines in 1950 and 1951. [2] Dr. Seuss died in 1991, and the stories were later rediscovered by Charles D. Cohen, a Massachusetts dentist and Seuss scholar. [3] Cathy Goldsmith of Random House encountered the magazine stories in one of Cohen's eBay auctions, around 2001. [3] Random House published Cohen's book The Seuss, the Whole Seuss and Nothing But the Seuss: A Visual Biography of Theodor Seuss Geisel in 2003. [3] He also contributed an introduction to this collection. [3]

Analysis

Some elements of the stories in this collection appeared in later books. The story "Gustav the Goldfish" was the basis for the Beginner Book A Fish Out of Water . The book was written by Seuss's first wife Helen Palmer Geisel, illustrated by P. D. Eastman, and published in 1961. [4] "Gustav the Goldfish" rhymes, unlike A Fish out of Water. [2] Seuss later reused the basic plot of "The Strange Shirt Spot" for 1958's The Cat in the Hat Comes Back . [4] In both stories, a character tries to remove a spot from various household items but only manages to transfer the spot to one object after another. [5]

The story "The Rabbit, the Bear, and the Zinniga-Zanniga" was recorded by Marvin Miller and released on the 1965 album Dr. Seuss presents..."Fox in Socks" and "Green Eggs & Ham" on RCA Records.

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References

  1. 1 2 The Bippolo Seed and Other Stories, Random House , retrieved July 20, 2011
  2. 1 2 3 "Random Uncovers 'New' Seuss Stories", Publishers Weekly, March 29, 2011, retrieved July 20, 2011
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Lost stories by Dr. Seuss to be published", CBC News, April 7, 2011, retrieved July 20, 2011
  4. 1 2 Nel 2007, p. 164
  5. Nel 2007, p. 116

Sources