6 Dr. Seuss books to end publication.
Six Dr. Seuss books will no longer be published because of their use of offensive imagery, according to the business that oversees the estate of the children’s author and illustrator.
In a statement Tuesday, Dr. Seuss Enterprises said that it had decided last year to end publication and licensing of the books by Theodor Seuss Geisel. The titles include his first book writing under the pen name Dr. Seuss, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” (1937), and “If I Ran the Zoo” (1950).
“These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong,” Dr. Seuss Enterprises said in the statement.
The business said the decision came after working with a panel of experts, including educators, and reviewing its catalog of titles.
Geisel died in 1991. The other books that will no longer be published are “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!” “Scrambled Eggs Super!” and “The Cat’s Quizzer.”
In “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” a character described as “a Chinaman” has lines for eyes, wears a pointed hat and carries chopsticks and a bowl of rice. (Editions published in the 1970s changed the reference to “a Chinese man.”)
In “If I Ran the Zoo,” two characters from “the African island of Yerka” are depicted as shirtless, shoeless and resembling monkeys.
A school district in Virginia said that it had advised schools to deemphasize Dr. Seuss books on “Read Across America Day,” a national literacy program that takes place each year on March 2, the anniversary of Geisel’s birth.
“Research in recent years has revealed strong racial undertones in many books written/illustrated by Dr. Seuss,” according to the statement by Loudoun County Public Schools.
Before he became a giant of children’s literature, Geisel drew political cartoons for a New York-based newspaper, PM, from 1941 to 1943, including some that caricatured Japanese and Japanese Americans.
Decades later, he said he was embarrassed by the cartoons.
Random House Children’s Books, which publishes the Dr. Seuss books, did not respond to a request for comment.