And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, sometimes shortened to just Mulberry Street, is the first children's book published by the American author Dr. Seuss. First published by Vanguard Press in 1937, the story follows a boy named Marco, who describes a parade of imaginary people and vehicles traveling along a road, Mulberry Street, in an elaborate fantasy story he dreams up to tell his father at the end of his walk. However, when he arrives home, he decides instead to tell his father what he actually saw—a simple horse and wagon.

Geisel conceived the core of the book aboard a ship in 1936, returning from a European vacation with his wife. The rhythm of the ship's engines captivated him and inspired the book's signature lines: "And that is a story that no one can beat. And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street."

At least 20 publishers rejected the book before Geisel ran into an old college classmate, who had just become juvenile editor at Vanguard Press. Vanguard agreed to publish the book, and it met with high praise from critics upon release, though sales were not as impressive. Later analyses of the book have focused on its connections to Geisel's childhood; the street of the title is named after a street in Geisel's hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts. Geisel returned to fictionalized versions of Springfield in later books, and Marco appeared again in 1947 in the Dr. Seuss book McElligot's Pool.

In March 2021, Dr. Seuss Enterprises removed Mulberry Street from publication due to images in the book that the estate deemed "hurtful and wrong".

Plot While walking home from school, a boy named Marco recalls his father's words: "Marco, keep your eyelids up and see what you can see." However, the only thing Marco has seen on his walk is a horse pulling a wagon on Mulberry Street. Marco begins to envision a more fantastical scene; he first turns the horse into a zebra, then a reindeer, and finally an elephant accompanied by two giraffes. The wagon turns into a chariot, then a sled, then a cart carrying a brass band.

Upon realizing that Mulberry Street intersects with Bliss Street, Marco adds a group of police escorts. The scene becomes a parade with a grandstand filled with the mayor and city officials, an airplane dropping confetti, and more. Marco arrives home, eager to share his invented story with his father. However, when his father questions him about what he saw, he responds, "Nothing but a plain horse and wagon on Mulberry Street."

Background Geisel was 33 and had ten years of experience in cartooning, illustrating and advertising when he began work on Mulberry Street.Cohen (2004), pp. 181–187 He had an established and prosperous career in advertising, including a contract with Standard Oil for Flit bug spray. Geisel's popular campaign featured the line "Quick, Henry, the Flit!" He had also made some forays into book publishing: for Viking Press in 1931 he illustrated Boners and More Boners, collections of quotations from children's school papers. The book's positive sales encouraged Geisel to create his own children's book,Anderson (2011), p. 46 which his advertising contract did not forbid.Weidt (1994), pp. 27–28 In 1932, Geisel wrote and illustrated an alphabet book featuring a collection of odd animals, but was unable to interest publishers in it.

According to Judith and Neil Morgan, Geisel conceived the core of Mulberry Street in the summer of 1936 aboard the MS Kungsholm, a Swedish American luxury liner, during the return trip from a European vacation with his wife, Helen Palmer. As the Kungsholm endured a storm and Geisel experienced sea sickness, he jotted down a rambling plot that started with "a stupid horse and wagon". To keep himself occupied, he began reciting poetry to the rhythm of the ship's engines and soon found himself saying, "And that is a story that no one can beat, and to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street". For days after they landed, he had the rhythm of the ship's engine stuck in his head, so, at Helen's suggestion, he decided to write a story based on it.Morgan & Morgan (1995), pp. 79–81

The Morgans based this account on interviews with Geisel, who had given similar accounts of the book's creation to journalists throughout his career, often omitting or altering various details. In one version, he had already been working on the book for six months before the European trip, and the trip home provided the final breakthrough. In another, he claimed he had the book about half finished when they landed in the United States.Nel (2004), pp. 119–121

Geisel, in his perfectionism, struggled with writing Mulberry Street. According to the Morgans, "although he lived for wit, his flights of fancy were subject to strict review".Morgan & Morgan (1995), p. 81 He spent at least six months on the book, questioning every word and writing numerous drafts. He wrote the poem out in pencil on yellow paper and asked his wife to discuss every page with him.

Publication history Geisel submitted his finished manuscript, originally titled A Story No One Can Beat, to dozens of publishers during the winter of 1936–37. Publishers posited a variety of criticisms of the book, including that fantasy was not salable, that children's books written in verse were out of style, and that the book lacked a clear moral message. According to the Morgans, Geisel angrily exclaimed to his wife, "What's wrong with kids having fun reading without being preached at?" She cited the book's cartoon-like drawings and its story, which might be seen to encourage daydreaming and lying to one's parents, as possible reasons for its rejection.

According to Geisel, he was walking down Madison Avenue in New York City after learning of the latest rejection, planning to burn the manuscript when he got home, when he ran into Mike McClintock, an old Dartmouth College classmate. McClintock had just become juvenile editor at Vanguard Press and took Geisel to his office to introduce him to Vanguard's President James Henle and editor Evelyn Shrifte. Henle had been gaining a reputation for signing authors whom other, larger publishers had rejected. He soon agreed to publish the book, but stipulated that its title be changed.Morgan & Morgan (1995), p. 82 In gratitude to McClintock, Geisel changed the name of the book's protagonist to Marco, after McClintock's son, and dedicated the book to McClintock's wife, Helene.

In "an act of faith",Morgan & Morgan (1995), p. 83 Vanguard Press printed 15,000 copies of the book for its first printing. To promote the book, Henle bought a full-page advertisement in Publishers Weekly, which reproduced the book's two-page spread of a reindeer pulling a cart and featured the line, "Book publishers, hitch on! This is the start of a parade that will take you places!" Approximately two years later, Vanguard printed 6,000 more copies. By 1943, it had printed 31,600 copies, and Geisel's royalties were no more than $3,500.Morgan & Morgan (1995), p. 85 Although Geisel later moved to Random House, Vanguard continued to publish Mulberry Street and his second book, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, until 1988, when Random House bought Vanguard.Morgan & Morgan (1995), p. 275

Near the end of the book, Marco envisions a Chinese character joining his imagined parade. Early editions of the book called this character a "Chinaman" and depicted him with yellow-toned skin and a queue; Geisel later removed these elements.Morgan & Morgan (1995), p. 276 However, he adamantly refused to change a line that many perceived as sexist: "Say, even Jane could think of that."Nel (2004), pp. 108–109

Reception Hearing of its release, neighbors of Geisel's in Springfield were at first worried that the book would be an exposé of the people there. Sales were lackluster, but early reviews were glowing. (unpaginated) Clifton Fadiman wrote a one-sentence review in The New Yorker, which Geisel could still quote near the end of his life: "They say it's for children, but better get a copy for yourself and marvel at the good Dr. Seuss' impossible pictures and the moral tale of the little boy who exaggerated not wisely but too well".Morgan & Morgan (1995), pp. 83–84 The New York Times wrote: "Highly original and entertaining, Dr Seuss' picture book partakes of the better qualities of those peculiarly America institutions, the funny papers and the tall tale. It is a masterly interpretation of the mind of a child in the act of creating one of those stories with which children often amuse themselves and bolster up their self-respect".

Anne Carroll Moore, then in charge of the children's section at the New York Public Library, wrote an enthusiastic review in the Atlantic Monthly and invited Geisel to speak at the library. In her review she called the book "so completely spontaneous that the American child can take it to his heart on sight", and "as original in conception, as spontaneous in the rendering as it is true to the imagination of a small boy". Moore sent a copy of the book to English children's author Beatrix Potter, who wrote back, "What an amusing picture book ... I think it the cleverest book I have met with for many years. The swing and merriment of the pictures and the natural truthful simplicity of the untruthfulness ... Too many story books for children are condescending, self-conscious inventions—and then some trivial oversight, some small incorrect detail gives the whole show away. Dr. Seuss does it thoroughly!"Nel (2004), pp. 4–5 Geisel himself was later critical of the book, saying on its 25th anniversary: "I think I was a little aloof, too outside there. It was written from the point of view of my mind, not the mind of a child".Nichols (1962), p. 42

While Mulberry Streets sales grew significantly as the Dr. Seuss brand became more famous, it is not one of Geisel's best-selling books. In 2012, on the occasion of the book's 75th anniversary, Michael Winerip argued that later Dr. Seuss books were more entertaining and inventive than Mulberry Street but that it is nevertheless important as a harbinger of the many books that followed. A. O. Scott, in a 2000 article in The New York Times, contradicted this view, calling the book "a hymn to the generative power of fantasy, a celebration of the sheer inventive pleasure of spinning an ordinary event into 'a story that no one can beat'".

Analysis Autobiographical elements and influences

Some writers have focused on Mulberry Streets connections to elements of Geisel's life, particularly his childhood in Springfield, Massachusetts. Geisel probably named the street in his story after a real-life Mulberry Street in Springfield. Guy McLain, director of the Springfield Museum, contends that Geisel may have chosen the street due to its proximity to a bakery owned by his grandparents, as well as the sound and rhythm of its name. Lewis Nichols, writing in 1962 on the occasion of the book's 25th anniversary, largely confirmed this view, writing that in the book's creation "there was no particular Mulberry Street in view, although there was one of the name in Springfield, Mass., where Mr. Geisel was born, and the subconscious may have taken him back". Other writers have pointed out that the motorcycles the policemen use to escort the parade in Mulberry Street resemble Indian motorcycles, which were manufactured in Springfield during Geisel's childhood. Cori Urban claimed that the mayor in the story resembles Fordis C. Parker, who was mayor of Springfield from 1925 to 1929.City of Springfield (1922), Municipal Register of the City of Springfield, Springfield, Ma.: City of Springfield, p. 908