Dr. Seuss – Redbook Magazine Original Stories

I’ve documented 23 issues of Redbook Magazine from the 1950’s which contain Dr. Seuss stories. Each of these were original stories (except Grinch?), not reprints like the Seuss stories in Children’s Digest, and therefore likely have collectible value. At this time, these issues are relatively inexpensive to acquire.

No. Pgs  Date     Title
01   4    1950 – Jun    Gustav the Goldfish
02   3    1950 – Jul    If I Ran The Zoo
03   3    1950 – Aug    Tad and Todd
04   2    1950 – Sep    Marco Comes Late
05   3    1950 – Oct    How Officer Pat Saved the Whole Town
06   3    1950 – Nov    Steak for Supper
07   2    1950 – Dec    The Big Brag
08   2    1951 – Jan    Horton and the Kwuggerbug
09   2    1951 – Feb    The Rabbit, the Bear and the Zinniga-Zanniga
10   2    1951 – Apr    Yertle
11   2    1951 – Jun    Bippolo Seed
12   2    1951 – Jul    Gertrude McFuzz
13   2    1951 – Sep    The Strange Shirt Spot
14   2    1951 – Nov    The Great Henry McBride
15   1    1953 – Jul    Sneetches
16   1    1953 – Aug    The Flustards
17   1    1954 – Jan    The Munkits
18   1    1954 – Mar    Zaks
19   1    1954 – Jul    The Ruckus
12   1    1955 – May    Hoobub and the Grinch
21   1    1956 – Feb    Did I Ever Tell You?
22   1    1956 – Dec    The Kindly Snather
23  12   1957 – Dec    How the Grinch Stole Christmas

regards,
Stan Zielinski
1stedition.net

Notes:

1. The July 1950 issue with If I Ran The Zoo pre-dates the publication of the book by several months. Notably, the book has text which differs from the original Redbook version.

2. The April 1951 issue with Yertle pre-dates the publication of the book by seven years. Yertle The Turtle (Random, 1958) also includes the Gertrude McFuzz story, which was published in the July 1951 Redbook, and The Big Brag, which was originally published in the December 1950 Redbook.

3. The December 1957 issue contains the complete story of How The Grinch Stole Christmas. This is odd, since the book was published that same season. I’ve researched whether Seuss’s original intention was to publish Grinch in Redbook first (perhaps the quality of the story convinced Bennett Cerf to publish the book version?), and found the following:

From Ruth MacDonald’s "Dr. Seuss", "At the same time he was working on The Cat In The Hat, Seuss was expected to produce an annual volume for Random House. One year, he found himself with a deadline but no book for the publisher’s Christmas list. The Grinch and his story occurred fortuitously, and the story was written quickly, in a few weeks"

This is contrary to the account in the Morgan’s biography "Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel", "In mid-May, Helen wrote Louise Bonino that the Grinch was in the mail, and that she expected it to be the second Dr.Seuss blockbuster of 1957.[…] The Grinch appeared in the fall of 1957 and was acclaimed from the start."