A new Dr. Seuss children’s book called Dr. Seuss’s Horse Museum, about creating and experiencing art, will be published by Random House Children’s Books on September 3, 2019, with a first printing of 250,000 copies.
The original manuscript for Dr. Seuss’s Horse Museum was discovered in the late author’s La Jolla home 21 years after his death, alongside the manuscript for the 2015 #1 New York Times bestseller What Pet Should I Get?
The exciting publication of Dr. Seuss’s Horse Museum marks a celebration of art and how we all see the world in different ways. Young readers will join an affable horse as he takes a group of students on a guided tour of an art museum.
Taking inspiration from Dr. Seuss’s original sketches, acclaimed illustrator Andrew Joyner has completed the unfinished artwork to accompany Dr. Seuss’s original text and created a look that is both subtly Seussian and wholly his own. Joyner’s whimsical illustrations are combined throughout with full-color photographic reproductions of famous horse artwork by Pablo Picasso, George Stubbs, Rosa Bonheur, Alexander Calder, Jacob Lawrence, Deborah Butterfield, Franz Marc, Jackson Pollock, and many others. Cameo appearances by classic Dr. Seuss characters (among them the Cat in the Hat, The Grinch, and Horton the Elephant) make Dr. Seuss’s Horse Museum a playful picture book that is totally unique.
Dr. Seuss’s former Art Director, Cathy Goldsmith, now President & Publisher of Beginner Books, is overseeing the process of preparing Dr. Seuss’s Horse Museum for publication. Goldsmith is the one remaining publishing executive at Random House to have worked directly with Ted Geisel during his lifetime, including spending time with him in La Jolla when he was finishing Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
“I remember fondly the days when Ted would come to Random House to hand-deliver his latest work, which included reading aloud to staff gathered in a conference room,” says Goldsmith. “Poring over the manuscript and Ted’s original sketches for Dr. Seuss’s Horse Museum brought me right back to those days, and I continue to be so honored to bring his brilliant work to today’s young readers.”
A Publisher’s Note at the end of the book discusses the discovery of the manuscript and sketches, Dr. Seuss’s fascination with modern art, the process of creating the book with Andrew Joyner, and information about each of the artists and art reproductions in the book.
“We’re so excited to have Dr. Seuss’s Horse Museum to share with readers, and to give them an inside look at how Ted thought about art, and how he viewed the world—which was with a creative eye, and a passionate belief in imagination,” says Brandt. “This new book will not only entertain as only Dr. Seuss can, but is sure to inspire conversations about the countless ways we each view the world around us. We happily expect that many children will be asking, ‘What do YOU see?’ after sitting with this latest creation by Dr. Seuss.”
Dr. Seuss was a man of many hats, including a painter and artist himself, and his books taught generations of children not only to learn to love to read, but also to think about the multitudes of possibilities for how we understand the world and people around us. Artists and non-artists alike will appreciate the timeless theme in Dr. Seuss’s Horse Museum that there is no one right way to interpret the beauty we encounter every day.
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