“Like the quiet cats tucked into the corners of his early illustrations, Ted lingered at the edges of his own story—watching, creating, and waiting for just the right moment to step into the spotlight.”
on the brink of worldwide recognition
TED’S LETTER
Six months prior to the release of The Cat in the Hat, Ted Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) sensed that his “Cat” may be “sending off sky rockets” in the debate over children’s literacy. He wrote to his publisher:
“Don’t ever show this letter to anyone, but I’ve got a hunch (very immodest). Namely, according to Houghton-Mifflin, we’ve got a possibility of making a tremendous noise in the noisy discussion of Why Johnny Can’t Read…Too early to tell yet, so you and I should just watch and wait. But if Houghton Mifflin is right, we’ll be plumb in the middle of a great educational controversy… At that point we’ll have a better idea of whether we’re sending off sky rockets or not. And if it looks like sky rockets to you, we’ll have a big thing on our hands.”
The Cat here embodies that essence of playfulness… the guide rails are down - and all the while wobbling ever so close to the edge - there’s fun to be had!
Ted’s early concept drawing for The Cat in the Hat endpapers quite literally hold the volume together, binding the interior pages to the cover.
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back introduced a full alphabetic complement of “cat companions” to help the Cat in the Hat out — Little Cats B,C and A! — plus D through Z!
This historic work features a series of three rough drawings from 1957 and highlights the first drawings ever made of Thing One and Thing Two.
Look closely at these two images and you’ll find subtle changes between rough concept drawing and final illustration, changes that cleverly add to the precarious tension of the scene.
Anticipation is on full view in this pivotal image from The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. Just as the rules are about to be broken and the mayhem re-ignited, he reminds us to listen to our own voice
the cat that changed the world
Overnight successes are often misunderstood. Great contributions are not born instantly, but instead are the accumulation of experiences, hard work, and constant challenges. Ted’s work over the 30 years prior to releasing The Cat in the Hat allowed him to hone his creative skill into a powerful combination of simple, bright illustrations, and hard-charging prose, which left no reader behind.
He had learned that fantasy was paramount to engaging his audience and seemed to infuse that notion into his iconic main character. Ted said of himself:
“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do. And that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.””
Meticulously re-created from I Can Read with My Eyes Shut! The mischievous Cat is now accompanied by an impressionable young Cat protégé.
Here, Ted highlights that one’s curiosity and desire to learn can fuel life’s experiences, and such experiences can build exponentially upon themselves.
Celebrating 60 years of The Cat who gave us permission to tap into our childhood ambitions of unimpeded fun, allowing us to be a child alongside our own children as we shared his stories.
Here we witness the moment where hand-typed and hand-cut blocks of copy, often still in progress, are taped or glued against a preliminary rough drawing, or even the final line work itself.
the secret cats
During the mid-1920s, Ted began painting privately for his own creative enjoyment. This passion would become one of his favorite pastimes and the works he created during the next 60 years would eventually become known as “The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss.”
These works allude to Ted’s entire life experience, from the artistic movements he encountered in Paris and New York, to the vast travel adventures he began in the late twenties and continued throughout most of his life. “Ted’s Cats” appear throughout these works, sometimes center stage, while other times subordinate to the fantastical landscapes surrounding them. What seems consistent throughout the brushstrokes stretching across six decades of paintings is a life well-lived — a life of adventure, challenge, love, and great purpose. Indeed, through Ted’s work, we are offered a glimpse into the best aspects of our own lives.
Dr. Seuss’s late night painting sessions, alone in his studio,
were not about being lonely, but instead were about great artistic freedom flourishing in the stillness of the night.
Ted, who traveled to 30 countries in the 1930’s, uses his Cubist influence here to not only depict his own travels, but encourage us to push ourselves as far as we can when traveling, to get inspired and soak up every bit of culture along the way.
Like finding a diamond in the rough, Ted understood the importance of digging deep for the best ideas and was always willing to do so in pursuit of the next great painting, book, or creative project.
Likely painted during the 1970s, enough time and life experiences had accumulated for Ted to step back and thoughtfully comment on the trajectory of his life.
Throughout his career, Ted was fond of bold color, felines, and strong design; the three critical elements featured in this beloved 1970s oil painting.
If the perfect idea is represented by the bird in this striking painting, and Ted is the Cat from its title, then we can clearly see the conundrum in pursuing perfection.
Young and eager, Ted reflects back on his early days living in a dingy one-room apartment, years before the Cat in the Hat was born and Ted’s creativity was revealed to the world.
This concept drawing contains all of the complexity of the final image, charged with a chaotic energy and whimsy that launched this milestone painting.
The first ever work in the Secret Art Sculpture Collection, Ted identifies himself here as an Indistinct Cat. Most would argue that Ted, and his many Cats, were anything but Indistinct.
Ted painted his friend, Lee Katz, as one of his iconic cats. Like Joseph’s coat of many colors symbolized a chosen status, Ted nods to Lee’s importance in his life. Here, we experience the gesture of friendship in three dimensions.