Second issue of this whimsical advertising booklet about boat safety and yachting, illustrated by Seuss with sea creatures in a style very similar to the future Cat in the Hat and the characters of ONE FISH TWO FISH.
Good plus.
Price: $600.00
Nearly two decades before Seuss would become a household name, he illustrated advertisements for various companies including Ford, NBC, and Standard Oil. Seuss was commissioned to illustrate these two informational pamphlets for Essomarine, which sold boat fuel. According to Seuss biographer Brian Jay Jones the pamphlet, first published in 1934, is "full of good advice, but the art of Dr. Seuss, coupled with Taylor's spry writing, made the manual so popular that Standard Oil asked Geisel to create a special campaign" – a project Seuss ended up calling the "Seuss Navy," which he took great pride in: "very soon everyone who had a putt-putt wanted to join the Seuss Navy" (105-6). This copy comes directly from the stock of Aleph-Bet Books, the firm of Seuss bibliographers Helen Younger and Marc Younger.
Read more: Jones, Becoming Dr. Seuss: Theodor Geisel and the Making of an American Imagination; Younger, Younger, & Hirsch, First Editions of Dr. Seuss Books: A Guide to Identification, 69.
(Standard Oil): Essomarine, 1935. 9'' x 6''. Original side-stapled pictorial wrappers printed in red and blue. Illustrated by Seuss with large red-and-blue aquatints. 34 pages. Spine repaired with tape; chip to blank corner of rear wrapper, a few other tape repairs to rear wrapper.
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