Seuss sales soar after 6 titles nixed

Oh, the books you’ll sell! Sales of six Dr. Seuss books that are being dropped by their publisher over alleged racist and insensitive content, are flying off online shelves.

Eighteen Dr. Seuss titles were on Barnes & Noble’s top 20 bestseller list on Thursday and nine of his books made up Amazon’s top 10 bestseller list.

The company that preserves the author’s legacy, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, announced Tuesday that it would stop publishing, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” “If I Ran the Zoo,” “McElligot’s Pool,” “The Cat’s Quizzer,” “Scrambled Eggs Super!” and “On Beyond Zebra!”

“These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong,” the organization said. “Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’s catalog represents and supports all communities and families.”

The news wasn’t all great for Suess sales, as eBay said it would not list any of the problematic tales anymore.

Tuesday’s announcement, which fell on author Theodor Seuss Geisel’s birthday was immediately slammed as a prime example of the dangers of “cancel culture.”

“Now 6 Dr. Seuss books are cancelled too?,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) Tweeted. “When history looks back at this time it will be held up as an example of a depraved sociopolitical purge driven by hysteria and lunacy.”

The decision to discontinue the titles was made last year with the help of a panel of experts, including teachers, Dr. Seuss Enterprises said.

Books by Dr. Seuss, who was born in 1904 and died in 1991, are sold in more than 100 countries.