Publication History
An Immediate Success!!
The first edition was published on March 12, 1957 by two publishers, Houghton Mifflin published the school edition and Random House published the trade edition then Houghton Mifflin sold the rights to Random House in 1960. It was republished in 1985 by Random House Publishers, New York. THE CAT IN THE HAT remains in print.
Seuss biographers, Judith and Neil Morgan refer to THE CAT IN THE HAT as
an instan
t hit: “As
soon as the first cartons of THE CAT IN THE HAT reached stores, Random
House recognized the omens that publishers live for. At Bullock’s in Los
Angeles, the first 110-copy order disappeared in a day and a hurried call went out
for a 250-copy reorder. The Random House trade edition quickly outran Houghton
Mifflin’s school edition, averaging sales at the start of about twelve thousand
copies a month and rising rapidly.” Within
three years nearly a million copies were sold at $1.95 each. Editions were printed
in French, Chinese, Swedish and Braille. It now appears in over
twenty languages including Spanish and Hebrew.
The sequel
called THE CAT IN THE HAT COMES BACK was released the following
year (1958).
Initially, Dr. Seuss resisted promotional toys and products and any merchandise that would cheapen the Dr. Seuss image. However, two years after it's release in 1959 he agreed to sign with Revell Corp. to design Dr. Seuss animals. He set up a sculpting studio to sculpt the Cat, Horton and others.
Much has changed since then with a plethora of products available with the Cat’s image. There have also been productions in other media . There was a short animated cartoon released in 1967, with updated cartoons but true to the text. Most recently, a live action film starring Mike Meyers as The Cat was released in 2003.