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Dr Seuss’ books seem more popular than ever amid the controversy over a small selection of titles that will no longer be sold because they were deemed to have “callous and racist images”.
Copies of the beloved children’s author’s most popular books were practically flying out of Amazon and Barnes and Noble warehouses, with his most popular books making up 9 of the 10 bestsellers on both companies’ lists on Thursday night.
“The Cat in The Hat”, “Oh, The Places You’re Go” and “Green Eggs and Ham”, three of Seuss’ best-known works, were all out of stock on Amazon but still available at a premium price. High on Barnes and the Noble website starting Thursday night.
Dr. Seuss Enterprises, which preserves the author’s legacy, this week announced six books – “And Thinking I’ve Seen It On Mulberry Street”, “If I Run The Zoo”, “McElligot’s Pool” , “On Beyond Zebra !,” “Scrambled Eggs Super !,” and “The Cat’s Quizzer” – would no longer be printed.
6 DR. SEUSS BOOKS TO STOP PUBLISHING DUE TO RACIST IMAGING
“These books portray people in a hurtful and false way,” Dr Seuss Enterprises told The Associated Press in a statement that coincided with the late author and illustrator’s birthday on March 2.
“Stopping the sale of these books is only part of our commitment and our larger plan to ensure that the Dr. Seuss Enterprises catalog represents and supports all communities and families,” he said. .
Used copies of the now-out-of-print books were being sold by independent sellers on Amazon for hundreds of dollars.
A salesperson had valued a “good” hard copy of “The Cat’s Quizzer” at $ 900.
Online marketplace eBay Inc. said it was working to prevent the resale of the six out-of-print books, even though hundreds of listings were still on the website as of Thursday. Many lists mentioned that books were “banned”.
One listing offered four of the books for $ 2,000.
DR. OFFENSIVE JUSTIFIED SEUSS BOOKS WILL BE DELETED FROM EBAY
Examples of problematic drawings include an Asian person wearing a conical hat and holding chopsticks in “And to think I saw him on Mulberry Street” and two barefoot African men wearing what appear to be grass skirts with their hair tied above their heads in “If I ran the zoo.”
The National Education Association, which hosts Reading Day across America, once partnered with Dr. Seuss Enterprises for the literary promotion event which takes place on her birthday, but recently became “independent of a particular book, publisher, or character” due to the need to promote various books, according to its website.
Seuss’ daughter-in-law, whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel, told the New York Post this week: “There wasn’t a racist bone in this man’s body – he was so aware of the world that l ‘surrounded and cared so much. “
Lark Gray Dimond-Cates said she understood Dr Seuss Enterprises’ decision and said people had to be “very nice, caring and kind to each other” because of the “painful times” we live in.
President Biden sparked a Seuss-related controversy over conservatives when he did not mention the author’s name in his “Read Across America” proclamation – a break with his two immediate predecessors.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden’s statement was drafted by the NEA.
Seuss remains hugely popular, earning around $ 33 million pre-tax in 2020, down from just $ 9.5 million five years ago, the company said. Forbes ranked him # 2 on his highest-paid deceased celebrities of 2020, behind only the late pop star Michael Jackson.
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Hours after Tuesday’s announcement, Dr. Seuss’ books filled more than half of the top 20 slots on Amazon.com’s bestseller list. “Mulberry Street” and “If I Ran the Zoo” were on the list, along with “Oh, the Places you’re Go!”, “Green Eggs and Ham” and more in the pipeline.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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