My hearty thanks to a very large number of people for all kinds of assistance. They include: colleagues at the History Department of the University of Massachusetts for criticism, encouragement, and other help: Kevin Boyle, Milton Cantor, Bob Jones, Kathy Peiss, Charles Rearick, Roland Sarti, Ron Story, Mary Wilson; librarians at the W. E. B. DuBois Library: the good people at the Reference and Interlibrary Loan desks and, for special support, Stás Radosh; librarians and archivists elsewhere: at the Film Division of the Library of Congress; at Special Collections, Boston University; at the Nieman Foundation at Harvard; and, most notably, at the Mandeville Special Collections Library of the University of California, San Diego, Lynda Claassen and Richard H. F. Lindemann. Richard drew up the invaluable list of all Dr. Seuss’s PM cartoons, scanned the cartoons for this volume digitally, and retouched them with great care. He is responsible for the high quality of these reproductions; others for criticism, advice, and technical assistance: Aaron Berman, John Dower, Tom Engelhardt, Anita Fahrni, Paul Milkman, my parents Gladys and Paul Minear, Larry Minear, Susan Rabiner, Ned Rosenthal, Edgar Sabogal; the professionals at The New Press: André Schiffrin, who reacted immediately and enthusiastically, Jessica Blatt, Hall Smyth, who designed the book and allowed me a voice in the final decisions, Janey Tannenbaum, Grace Farrell. Mistakes, misinterpretations, and other shortcomings are not theirs but mine.
Unless I have indicated otherwise (usually by citing the date of an interview or article), information on Dr. Seuss comes from the fine book by Judith and Neil Morgan, Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel (New York: Random House, 1995); it is the starting point for all discussion of Dr. Seuss’s life and work. Other sources include: Ruth K. MacDonald, Dr. Seuss (Boston: Twayne, 1988); Edward Connery Latham, ed., Theodor Seuss Geisel: Reminiscences and Tributes (Hanover, N. H.: Dartmouth College, 1996); Richard Marschall, ed., The Tough Coughs As He Ploughs the Dough: Early Writings and Cartoons by Dr. Seuss (New York: William Morrow/REMCO Worldservice Books, 1987); Dr. Seuss From Then To Now: A Catalogue of the Retrospective Exhibition (San Diego: San Diego Museum of Art, 1986); Paul Milkman, PM: A New Deal in Journalism 1940-1948 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1997). PM is available on microfilm. Important articles include “Malice in Wonderland,” Newsweek, Feb. 9, 1942; E. J. Kahn, Jr., “Children’s Friend,” The New Yorker, Dec. 17, 1960; Marian Christy, “Muse on the Loose,” Boston Globe, July 20, 1980; David Sheff, “Seuss on Wry...” Parenting (Feb. 1987). The “official” Dr. Seuss website (there are also many others) is www.randomhouse.com/seussville. The University of California, San Diego will post eventually all the PM cartoons, not simply those in this volume, and the original drawings in its collection on www.ucsd.edu (click to Mandeville Special Collections, and then Online Exhibits).
RICHARD H. MINEAR, Amherst, Massachusetts, July 1999