‘Cancel culture’ claims as Seuss books seen as racist pulled
In the summer of 1936, Theodor Geisel was on a ship from Europe to New York when he started scribbling silly rhymes on the ship’s stationery to entertain himself during a storm: “And this is a story that no one can beat. I saw it all happen on Mulberry Street.”
The rhymes morphed into his first children’s book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, about a boy who witnesses increasingly outlandish things. First published in 1937, the book started Geisel’s career as Dr. Seuss. He went on to publish more than 60 books that have sold some 700 million copies globally, making him one of the world’s most enduringly popular and beloved children’s book authors.
But some aspects of Seuss’ work have not aged well, including his debut, which features a crude racial stereotype of an Asian man with slanted lines for eyes.
Mulberry Street was one of six of his books that the Seuss estate said it would stop selling this week, after concluding that the egregious racial and ethnic stereotypes in the works “are hurtful and wrong.”
The announcement seemed to drive a surge of support for Seuss classics. Dozens of his books shot to the top of Amazon’s print best-seller list; on Thursday morning, nine of the site’s top 10 bestsellers were Seuss books.
The estate’s decision — which prompted breathless headlines on cable news and complaints about “cancel culture” from prominent conservatives — represents a dramatic step to update and curate Seuss’ body of work, acknowledging and rejecting some of his views while seeking to protect his brand and appeal. It also raises questions about whether and how an author’s works should be posthumously curated to reflect evolving social attitudes, and what should be preserved as part of the cultural record.
“It will cause people to reevaluate the legacy of Dr. Seuss, and I think that’s a good thing,” said Philip Nel, a children’s literature scholar at Kansas State University and the author of Dr. Seuss: American
Icon. “There are parts of his legacy one should honor, and parts of his legacy that one should not.”
He added: “They may be motivated by the fact that racism is bad for the brand, or they may be motivated by a deeper sense of racial justice.”
Classic children’s books are perennial bestsellers and an important revenue stream for publishers. Last year, more than 338,000 copies of Green Eggs and
Ham were sold across the United States, according to NPD BookScan, which tracks the sale of physical books at most retailers. One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish sold more than 311,000 copies,
and Oh, the Places You’ll Go! — always popular as a high school graduation gift — sold more than 513,000 copies.
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, one of the six books pulled by the estate, sold about 5,000 copies last year, according to BookScan. McElligot’s
Pool and The Cat’s Quizzer haven’t sold in years through the retailers BookScan tracks. Putting the merits of the books aside, removing Green Eggs and Ham would be a completely different business proposition from doing away with new printings of McElligot’s Pool. (Though the news that the books would be pulled caused a burst of demand, and copies of Mulberry Street were listed on eBay and Amazon for hundreds or thousands of dollars on Wednesday.)
Dr. Seuss is perhaps the most beloved children’s book author to come under criticism for outdated and insensitive depictions of racial, ethnic, cultural and gender differences.
Children’s publishers and literary estates are trying to walk a delicate line by preserving an author’s legacy, while recognizing and rejecting aspects of a writer’s work that are out of step with current social and cultural values.
Many were stunned by the Seuss estate’s decision, however, which was announced Tuesday to coincide with Dr. Seuss’ birthday. In a statement, Dr. Seuss Enterprises said it decided to discontinue those six titles last year, after consulting a panel of experts, including educators, to review its catalog.
Geisel, who died in 1991, is best known for whimsical picture books like Green
Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat, as well as works with ethical and moral imperatives to treat others with kindness and care for the planet, like Horton Hears
a Who! and The Lorax.
Scholars have long noted racism in his wartime political cartoons, which he later offered a halfhearted apology for, saying they were the result of “snap judgments that every political cartoonist has to make.”