American customers flocked to buy copies of Dr. Seuss’s titles after six of the author’s children’s books were removed because of racist portraits of people of color.
Dr Seuss Enterprises, which preserves the legacy of the late Theodor Seuss Geisel, announced on Tuesday – the author’s birthday – that after working with a panel of experts to review Seuss’s books, he concluded that the six titles portrayed the people of “painful and wrong” ways.
Seuss’s first book, E Think I Saw on Mulberry Street, contains an illustration of a Chinese man who caused controversy two years ago when he was included in a mural. If I Ran the Zoo suggests that a “boss” in a turban can be kept in a zoo and contains a drawing of two men, described as being from Africa, wearing grass skirts and carrying exotic-looking animals.
“Ceasing sales of these books is just part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure that Dr Seuss Enterprises’ catalog represents and supports all communities and families,” the organization said on Tuesday. The conservative media reacted to the news with indignation. Fox News stated: “Canceling culture hits the beloved author” and that “if we lose this battle, America is lost”.
As of Thursday morning, Amazon.com’s best-selling chart was filled with Seuss titles. Nine of the top 10 books were by the late writer and 30 of the top 50. Used copies of the six titles whose publication has already been stopped – And to think I saw it on Mulberry Street, If I ran the zoo, McElligot’s Piscina, plus Zebra, Super scrambled eggs! and The Cat’s Quizzer – went on sale for hundreds of dollars, as salespeople hoped to profit from the decision.
“I can’t tell you how angry I am that he is no longer published !!” wrote an Amazon reviewer on the Mulberry Street list, while another determined that “there was no racism here. Just exaggerated PC people actively looking for something to take offense. “
Seuss himself later revised the 1937 title on Mulberry Street, saying: “I had a gentleman with a braid. I painted it yellow and called it Chinese. That’s how it was 50 years ago. In later editions, I refer to him as a Chinese man. I took off the gentleman’s color and removed the braid and now he looks like an Irishman. “
Seuss died in 1991, and more than 600 million copies of his books are in circulation, earning Dr Seuss Enterprises about $ 33 million (£ 24 million) before tax in 2020, against $ 9.5 million in 2015 , according to the company. Forbes listed him as the second highest-paid dead celebrity of 2020, partly thanks to the film and TV deals, but mainly because of the sales of his books.