“THE BEST BOOK I’VE EVER WRITTEN”: SIGNED LIMITED FIRST EDITION OF DR. SEUSS’ THE BUTTER BATTLE BOOK

SEUSS, Dr. The Butter Battle Book. New York: Random House, (1984). Quarto, original pictorial blue cloth, original slipcase. $2400.

Signed limited first edition of Seuss’ provocative Cold War parable, number 228 of 500 copies printed, signed by Seuss on the limitation page.

Although this tale's inconclusive ending struck some readers as rather dark for a Dr. Seuss story, Ted Geisel himself called it "the best book I've ever written." Fueled by Geisel's passion as well as controversy both within Random House and in the media, The Butter Battle Book "soon led juvenile best-seller lists and also The New York Times Book Review fiction list… On New Year's Day of 1990 [an adaptation of] Butter Battle was televised in the Soviet Union. 'Right after that,' Ted bragged, 'the U.S.S.R. began falling apart" (Morgan, 250, 255). Issued without dust jacket. Younger & Hirsch 6a.

Very slight toning to spine, otherwise a fine signed copy.