Newly Discovered Dr. Seuss Manuscript What Pet Should I Get? to Be Published this Summer
A posthumous hippopotamus, of course!
Random House Children’s Books announced earlier today that it will be publishing What Pet Should I Get?, a newly-discovered manuscript complete with sketches by the late Dr.Seuss and featuring the siblings from One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, will be published on July 28th.
This isn’t the first time a new Dr.Seuss book has been published since the author’s death in 1991 at age 87; Horton and the Kwuggerbug, a compilation of “lost” stories from a column Seuss wrote for Redhook in the ’50s, was released in September. According to Random House, What Pet Should I Get? was literally lost for over two decades: after Seuss’ death his widow Audrey Geisel set aside a box of her late husband’s work while remodeling their home, and only re-discovered it 22 years later while cleaning out his office space.
Geisel says she thinks the discovery will be a fitting addition to her husband’s legacy:
While undeniably special, it is not surprising to me that we found this because Ted always worked on multiple projects and started new things all the time — he was constantly writing and drawing and coming up with ideas for new stories.
It is especially heartwarming for me as this year also marks twenty-five years since the publication of the last book of Ted’s career, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Susan Brandt, president of licensing and marketing of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, said in a Random House statement that additional materials were discovered alongside the manuscript:
Pages and pages of manuscripts and sketches were laid out on the big glass dining room table. It was truly a magical moment, and we immediately knew this was more than just a box of sketches.
Random House associate publishing director Cathy Goldsmith (so many ladies involved in this discovery!) estimates that What Pet Should I Get? was written between 1958 and 1962.
(via USAToday)
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