Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories

Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories, by Dr. Seuss. New York: Random House, 1958. First edition, first printing bringing together Dr. Seuss' fables previous published in 1950, 1951 and 1958 in Redbook Magazine: Yertle the Turtle, Gertrude McFuzz and The Big Brag. Complete with all first-issue points: 1950, 1951, 1958 on the copyright page, the list of 14 previously published titles to rear of the book, and publisher's price of 295/295 and 14 covers of previously published titles on the dust wrapper.

Thin quarto, unnumbered pages. Publisher's original illustrated glossy paper boards, pictorial endpapers. Light rubbing to corners with bumping to the lower two corners, a little wear and crushing to spine tips, light foxing to edges and offsetting to prelims; else clean and uninscribed. In the original, unclipped, first-issue dust wrapper that shows a little rubbing and small tears and nibbling to extremities, darkening and wear to joints, and a little loss to spine tips; clean otherwise; now placed in an archival wrapper. 

A first edition compiling Dr. Seuss' three witty fables on ambition, vanity, and pride. Yertle the Turtle follows the main character - king of the pond - whose hunger for power makes him stack himself atop his fellow turtles to climb higher than the Moon—until the lowest turtle burps, toppling Yertle into the mud and ending his reign. Gertrude McFuzz tells of a young bird who, unhappy with her single small tail feather, goes to great lengths to grow a more impressive tail—only to find that her vanity causes more trouble than she expected. The Big Brag tells of the adventure of a rabbit and a bear who engage in a contest of bragging, each claiming to be superior in sight and smell—until a wise worm humbles them both by showing the futility of their boasting. A lovely anthology.