News broke early this week that the publisher will discontinue six Dr. Seuss books citing racist imagery and themes. With that said, Theodore Geisel Seuss should count himself lucky that it's only six books, because the author famously made some last minute revisions to a few of his classics just before he published them. The Scott's Edition investigative staff was able to track down a few of these early Seuss stories.
One of the author's most famous works was originally titled, The Muslim in the Turban and told a very racist story of a Muslim man committing terrorist acts against two suburban children. Penguin House publishers let him keep the majority of the writing, though made him change the main character. The publisher explained, "Clearly, not all Muslims are terrorists, but all cats are assholes. Also, he should wear a hat."
The more festive Seuss-lovers may be disappointed to learn that their favorite Christmas story initially had a second villain. The editor recalls, "This draft was a contrived story about a pair of villains learning to control the banking system and the weather to destroy Christmas." The original title was, How the Grinch and Samuel Goldenberg Stole Christmas.
Dr. Seuss also avoided scandal by renaming two popular poems, so thankfully the public never had to read, And To Think That I Saw It On MLK Boulevard or Oh the Places You'll Go... If You're White.
Finally, we discovered a story that was originally titled, Horton Hears a Microaggression. It focused on a liberal elephant's attempt to get his coworker fired. Here's a snippet:
"Listen," said Horton. "I tell you sincerely,
My ears are quite keen and I heard him quite clearly.
Paul noticed Sarah's dark olive skin, accent too,
And he went right up and asked, 'So... what are you?'
So you see," Horton stated, "We must now cancel Paul,
A racist's a racist, no matter how small."
