“AND THE TURTLES, OF COURSE… ALL THE TURTLES ARE FREE AS TURTLES AND, MAYBE, ALL CREATURES SHOULD BE”

SEUSS, Dr. Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories. New York: Random House, (1958). Slim quarto, original pictorial green paper boards, pictorial endpapers, original dust jacket. $4200.

First collected edition of three of Seuss’ most memorable moral fables, inscribed on the verso of the front free endpaper, "for Juanito with Best Wishes—from Dr. Seuss."

"It is interesting to watch the progression of stacking turtles in [Seuss'] work over a nearly 25-year period… He began stacking them in May 1928 and repeated that image through the next two decades" (Cohen, 307), culminating in this volume's title story, a gentle but pointed parable about justice and social equality. The book also collects "Gertrude McFuzz" and "The Big Brag"; as the dust jacket states, "Thousands of people who read these three great Dr. Seuss fables in Redbook Magazine have written and begged us to print them in book form. So here they are." Younger & Hirsch 82. Gift inscription.

Interior with a few spots of faint soiling, boards with light rubbing to extremities; dust jacket with a bit of creasing, shallow chipping to spine ends, short closed tear to top margin of front flap, one tape repair to verso. An extremely good copy.