Censorship and the Author's Views

It may be hard to think that a beloved children’s book author like Dr. Seuss would face censorship challenges. Out of the more than 60 books he wrote throughout his lifetime 6 of them have been permanently taken out of print due to racist imagery. The organization that maintains the rights over Dr. Seuss’ works and image said that “ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’s catalog represents and supports all communities and families,” (Asmelash & Watts, 2021). They announced this plan on March 2^nd, 2021, Dr. Seuss’s birthday and the day known as Dr Seuss Day, which celebrates his works and contributions to children’s literature.

The censorship of children’s literature is nothing new and may be considered more common now than ever before.  Dr. Seuss’s first book, To Think that I saw it on Mulberry Street, was published in 1937 and is one of the books that was discontinued from print. Despite this book being published almost 90 years ago, race is still a focus of book challenges today. In 2023 The Washington Post did an analysis of book challenges in the United States and found that “36 percent targeted titles featuring characters of color or dealing with issues of race and racism,” (Natanson, 2023).

Dr Seuss is no longer with us so his opinions on the current state of book censorship cannot be discovered. What we can see is how his artwork and writings changed throughout his life. Before writing children’s books from the 1920’s to 40’s Seuss was employed as an artist drawing ads and political cartoons. These ads have very distinct racist undertones, “black people are presented as savages, living in the tropics, dressed in grass skirts. Arabs are portrayed as camel-riding nomads or sultans,” (Edwards, 2012).

Later in his life Seuss was known as a liberal Democrat who drew antiracist cartoons. Some of his later books also showed his changing political and racial views. His book The Lorax shows a strong pro-environment stance and “he dedicated Horton Hears a Who—a parable about the American postwar occupation of Japan—to ‘My Great Friend, Mitsugi Nakamura of Kyoto, Japan,’” (Edwards, 2012),” and “was an apology of sorts for his anti-Japanese cartoons,” (Macdonald, 2019). Another later work, “The Sneetches, emphasizes inclusion and acceptance,” (Dr. Seuss use of racist images, 2026). Also, The Butter Battle Book  is a “cautionary tale about respecting differences, Dr. Seuss shows how a small—and in this case, very silly—disagreement can escalate into a big problem,” (“The Butter Battle Book,” 2025).

Based on his later work one may ascertain the Seuss would have been decidedly anti-censorship. That is why it may be surprising to some that Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P., the company that owns the rights to his works, decided to stop printing 6 of his works. While the racist imagery is unfortunately these books are a testament of how a person can grow and change, their views evolving over time. It would be interesting how Seuss himself would feel about this decision, unfortunately it is something that we will never find out.