How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

SEUSS, Dr. [Theodor Seuss Geisel].

Item Number: 3896

New York: Random House, 1957.

First edition, first printing of one of the most celebrated and memorable Christmas stories with all issue points: Cat in the Hat on back cover of book with 14 titles (up to now) listed on the rear flap and a list of 13 books printed at the end of the book. Dust jacket price reads 250/250. Inscribed twice by Dr. Seuss to the same recipient, “For Juanito with Best Wishes- Dr. Seuss.” Dr. Seuss has signed on the verso of the front free endpaper and the verso of the half-title page. Illustrated in black and red. Thin quarto, original illustrated glossy paper boards, pictorial endpapers. Small inscription to the front free endpaper, very good with some rubbing to the boards as usual, repair to a tear in the rear endpaper in a very good dust jacket. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box.

"Clearly the Grinch has been the most memorable Christmas villain to undergo redemption since Ebenezer Scrooge. To some degree, Ted identified with the Grinch When asked why he wrote the book, Dr. Seuss replied, ‘I was brushing my teeth on the morning of the 26th of last December when I noted a very Grinch-ish countenance in the mirror. It was Seuss! So I wrote the story about my sour friend, the Grinch, to see if I could rediscover something about Christmas that obviously I’d lost.’ It was no coincidence that, when the book appeared in 1957, the Grinch complained, ‘For fifty-three years I’ve put up with it now’ Ted, of course, was born in 1904 After The Cat in the Hat and The Grinch, Ted’s reputation grew exponentially" (Cohen, 329-30). The book has been adapted into several stage and film productions including the classic animated special produced in 1966 featuring narration by Boris Karloff as well as the 2000 live-action film directed by Ron Howard and starring Jim Carrey as the Grinch.