Yertle the Turtle

Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories (1958) by Dr. Seuss is a children’s book that works as a compact parable of tyranny. On the island of Sala-ma-Sond, the turtle king Yertle, no longer content to rule only what he can see, orders his subjects to stack themselves into a living throne so that he can sit higher and claim more, until the turtle crushed at the bottom brings the whole structure down with a single burp. Theodor Geisel, who had spent the war years drawing anti-fascist political cartoons, stated plainly that Yertle was a portrait of Adolf Hitler, and the story stands as an allegory of authoritarian power built on the backs of the ruled and toppled from below. It closes on the freed turtles and the thought that all creatures should be free. The volume collects two further fables, “Gertrude McFuzz” and “The Big Brag,” both concerned with the costs of vanity.

Signed by Dr. Seuss. In the first-issue dust jacket, priced 295/295 on the front flap, with fourteen Seuss titles pictured on the rear panel. Younger & Hirsch 82.

Hardcover. First Edition, First Issue. Quarto, bound in pictorial boards. New York: Random House, 1958. #11532.
Good or better in a very good minus, unclipped dust jacket. Original pictorial boards still bright, with scattered scuffing and rubbing through the paper along portions of the bottom edges and at the corners. Spine ends bumped and chipped, with a few small nicks along the rear joint. The jacket remains bright, with edge rubbing and creasing, short tears at the spine ends, and wear at the corners. Small handwritten notation at the foot of the front flap.