text:
American wine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
American wine has been produced for over 300 years. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 89 percent of all US wine.[1] The United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world after France, Italy, and Spain.[2]
The North American continent is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina. But the wine making industry is based on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers.[3] With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the sixth-most planted country in the world after France, Italy, Spain, China and Turkey.[4]
Contents
[hide]
1 History
2 Wine regions
2.1 Production by state
3 Appellation system
3.1 Appellation labeling laws
3.2 Semi-generic wines
3.3 Fighting varietals
4 Other U.S. labeling laws
5 Three-tier distribution
6 Largest producers
7 See also
8 References
9 Further reading
10 External links
History[edit]
Main article: History of American wine
Sparkling wine made from a second label of Pleasant Valley Wine Company in New York which was the first bonded winery in the United States.
The first Europeans to explore North America, a Viking expedition from Greenland, called it Vinland because of the profusion of grape vines they found. The earliest wine made in what is now the United States was produced between 1562 and 1564 by French Huguenot settlers from Scuppernong grapes at a settlement near Jacksonville, Florida.[2] In the early American colonies of Virginia and the Carolinas, wine making was an official goal laid out in the founding charters. However, settlers discovered that the wine made from the various native grapes had flavors which were unfamiliar and which they did not like.
This led to repeated efforts to grow the familiar European Vitis vinifera varieties, beginning with the Virginia Company exporting French vinifera vines with French vignerons to Virginia in 1619. These early plantings met with failure as native pest and vine disease ravaged the vineyards. In 1683, William Penn planted a vineyard of French vinifera in Pennsylvania; it may have interbred with a native Vitis labrusca vine to create the hybrid grape Alexander. One of the first commercial wineries in the United States was founded in 1787 by Pierre Legaux in Pennsylvania. A settler in Indiana in 1806 produced wine made from the Alexander grape. Today French-American hybrid grapes are the staples of wine production on the East Coast of the United States.[4]
The Kentucky General Assembly on November 21, 1799 passed a bill to establish a commercial vineyard and winery.[5] The vinedresser for the vineyard was John James Dufour, formerly of Vevey, Switzerland.[4] The vineyard was located overlooking the Kentucky River in Jessamine County in what is known as Blue Grass country of central Kentucky. Dufour named it First Vineyard on November 5, 1798.[6] The vineyard's current address in 5800 Sugar Creek Pike, Nicholasville, Kentucky. The first wine from First Vineyard was consumed by subscribers to the vineyard at John Postelthwaite's house on March 21, 1803.[7] Two 5-gallon oak casks of wine were taken to President Thomas Jefferson in Washington, D.C. in February 1805.[8] The vineyard continued until 1809, when a killing freeze in May destroyed the crop and many vines. The Dufour family abandoned Kentucky and migrated west to Vevay, Indiana, a center of a Swiss-immigrant community.[9]
In California, the first vineyard and winery was established in 1769 by the Franciscan missionary Junípero Serra near San Diego. Later missionaries carried vines northward; Sonoma's first vineyard was planted around 1805.[3] California has two native grape varieties, but they make very poor quality wine. The California Wild Grape (Vitis californicus) does not produce wine-quality fruit, although it sometimes is used as rootstock for wine grape varieties.[10] The missionaries used the Mission grape. (In South America, this grape is known as criolla or "colonialized European".) Although a Vitis vinifera variety, it is a grape of "very modest" quality. Jean-Louis Vignes was one of the early settlers to use a higher quality vinifera in his vineyard near Los Angeles.[3]
The first winery in the United States to become commercially successful was founded in Cincinnati, Ohio in the mid-1830s by Nicholas Longworth. He made a sparkling wine from Catawba grapes. By 1855 Ohio had 1500 acres in vineyards, according to travel writer Frederick Law Olmsted, who said it was more than in Missouri and Illinois, which each had 1100 acres in wine.[11] German immigrants from the late 1840s had been instrumental in building the wine industry in those states.
In the 1860s, vineyards in the Ohio River Valley were attacked by Black rot. This prompted several winemakers to move north to the Finger Lakes region of western New York. During this time, the Missouri wine industry, centered on the German colony in Hermann, was expanding rapidly along both shores of the Missouri River west of St. Louis. By the end of the century, the state was second to California in wine production.[4] In the late 19th century, the phylloxera epidemic in the West and Pierce's disease in the East ravaged the American wine industry.[3]
Prohibition in the United States began when the state of Maine became the first state to go completely dry in 1846. Nationally, Prohibition was implemented after ratification by the states of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920, which forbade the manufacturing, sale and transport of alcohol. Exceptions were made for sacramental wine used for religious purposes, and some wineries were able to maintain minimal production under those auspices, but most vineyards ceased operations. Others resorted to bootlegging. Home winemaking also became common, allowed through exemptions for sacramental wines and production for home use.[12]
Following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, operators tried to revive the American wine making industry, which was nearly ended. Many talented winemakers had died, vineyards had been neglected or replanted with table grapes, and Prohibition had changed Americans' taste in wines. During the Great Depression, consumers demanded cheap "jug wine" (so-called dago red) and sweet, fortified (high alcohol) wine. Before Prohibition dry table wines outsold sweet wines by three to one, but afterward, the ratio of demand changed dramatically. As a result, by 1935, 81% of California's production was sweet wines. For decades, wine production was low and limited.
Leading the way to new methods of wine production was research conducted at the University of California, Davis and some of the state universities in New York. Faculty at the universities published reports on which varieties of grapes grew best in which regions, held seminars on winemaking techniques, consulted with grape growers and winemakers, offered academic degrees in viticulture, and promoted the production of quality wines. In the 1970s and 1980s, success by Californian winemakers in the northern part of the state helped to secure foreign investment from other winemaking regions, most notably the Champenois of France. Winemakers also cultivated vineyards in Oregon and Washington, on Long Island in New York, and numerous other new locales.
Americans became more educated about wines and increased their demand for high-quality wine. All 50 states now have some acreage in vineyard cultivation. By 2004, 668 million gallons (25.3 million hectoliters) of wine were consumed in the United States.[13] Today, the U.S. produces over 800 million gallons of wine a year, of which California produces more than 84%, followed by Washington, New York, Pennsylvania, and Oregon. In the second decade of the 21st century, the US wine industry faces the growing challenges of competition from international exports and managing domestic regulations on interstate sales and shipment of wine.
Wine regions[edit]
The Pacific Northwest includes in the winemaking regions of Washington State where varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon are grown.
There are nearly 3,000 commercial vineyards in the United States, and at least one winery in each of the 50 states.[14]
West Coast – More than 90% of the total American wine production occurs in the states of California, Washington and Oregon.
Rocky Mountain Region – Notably Idaho and Colorado
Southwestern United States – Notably Texas and New Mexico
Midwestern United States – Notably Missouri and Illinois
Great Lakes region – Notably Michigan, northern New York and Ohio
East Coast of the United States – Notably western New York State and eastern Long Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida.
Production by state[edit]
Production of still wine per state in 2016 was as follows:[15]
2016 production of still wine
State
Production (gal)
Production (%)
Alabama 34,966 0.004%
Arizona 190,008 0.024%
Arkansas 246,363 0.031%
California 680,272,512 84.354%
Colorado 556,994 0.069%
Connecticut 134,517 0.017%
Florida 1,634,103 0.203%
Georgia 276,144 0.034%
Idaho 497,007 0.062%
Illinois 391,805 0.049%
Indiana 1,411,540 0.175%
Iowa 335,522 0.042%
Kansas 104,129 0.013%
Kentucky 2,176,059 0.270%
Louisiana 38,232 0.005%
Maine 48,222 0.006%
Maryland 436,185 0.054%
Massachusetts 792,884 0.098%
Michigan 2,576,238 0.319%
Minnesota 331,946 0.041%
Missouri 993,831 0.123%
Montana 33,445 0.004%
Nebraska 120,366 0.015%
New Hampshire 159,316 0.020%
New Jersey 1,832,325 0.227%
New Mexico 749,818 0.093%
New York 27,969,308 3.468%
North Carolina 1,903,060 0.236%
Ohio 5,938,738 0.736%
Oklahoma 70,204 0.009%
Oregon 11,822,972 1.466%
Pennsylvania 12,405,181 1.538%
South Carolina 77,842 0.010%
South Dakota 139,738 0.017%
Tennessee 1,279,752 0.159%
Texas 1,907,299 0.237%
Vermont 2,172,526 0.269%
Virginia 2,157,395 0.268%
Washington 40,747,190 5.053%
West Virginia 40,733 0.005%
Wisconsin 1,129,405 0.140%
Others 312,051 0.039%
Sum 806,447,891 100%
Appellation system[edit]
Further information: American Viticultural Area
The early American appellation system was based on the political boundaries of states and counties. In September 1978 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (now Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) developed regulations to establish American Viticultural Areas (AVA) based on distinct climate and geographical features. In June 1980, the Augusta AVA in Missouri was established as the first American Viticultural Area under the new appellation system.[16] For the sake of wine labeling purposes, all the states and county appellations were grandfathered in as appellations. There were 187 distinct AVAs designated under U.S. law as of April 2007.[17]
Appellation labeling laws[edit]
In order to have an AVA appear on a wine label, at least 85% of the grapes used to produce the wine must be grown in the AVA.
With the larger state and county appellations the laws vary depending on the area. For a County Appellation, 75% of the grapes used must be from that county. If grapes are from two or three contiguous counties, a label can have a multi-county designation so long as the percentages used from each county are clearly on the label. For the majority of U.S. States the State Appellation requires 75% of the grapes in the wine to be grown in the state. Texas requires 75%, but if an AVA is used like "Texas Hill Country" or "Texas High Plains," 85% Texas grapes must be used.[18] California and Oregon require 100%. If grapes are from two to three contiguous states a wine can be made under a multi-state designations following the same requirements as the multi-county appellation.
American wine or United States is a rarely used appellation that classifies a wine made from anywhere in the United States, including Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.. Wines with this designation are similar to the French wine vin de table and can not include a vintage year. By law this is the only appellation allowed for bulk wines exported to other counties.[19]
Semi-generic wines[edit]
An example of American wines using semi-generic labels of burgundy, chablis, etc.
Current U.S. laws allow American made wines to be labeled as "American Burgundy" or "California champagne", even though these names are restricted in Europe. U.S. laws only restrict usage to include the qualifying area of origin to go with these semi-generic names. Other semi-generic names in the United States include Claret, Chablis, Chianti, Madeira, Malaga, Marsala, Moselle, Port, Rhine wine, Sauternes (commonly spelled on U.S. wine labels as Sauterne or Haut Sauterne), Sherry and Tokay. European Union officials have been working with their U.S. counterparts through World Trade Organization negotiations to eliminate the use of these semi-generic names.[19]
Fighting varietals[edit]
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Fighting varietal is a term that originated in California during the late-1970s as a marketing response to combat overt pressure from European wine producers. The term was coined to separate traditional domestic jug wine, whimsical brands, and imports, from premium wine production in the U.S.[20]
The U.S. dollar in the early 1980s was trading with such historic strength, it was dominating world currency markets, eventually leading to the first coordinated agreement between Central Banks in 1985 to intervene and depreciate the Dollar in what is now termed the Plaza Accord. European wines with centuries of history supporting them found it easy to compete with wine production in the U.S. on quality since the U.S. had only decades in real development of its vineyards and wine production techniques. With better quality and lower price, European wines had a substantial advantage over domestic producers which potentially slowed the growth of U.S. wine producing regions.
While European consumers understood the types of grapes grown in their regions, U.S. wine consumers found European labeling standards confusing. California wineries saw that as the opportunity and coordinated together to sell varietals, named for the variety of grapes in the bottle, as a means of educating the consumer and making the product easier to understand.
The actual term was coined referencing the "fight" against imported wines in the U.S. market using "varietals" instead of brands or regions for content identification.
While many different people have been given credit for the origination of the term, it is unlikely a conclusive author will ever be confirmed.
Other U.S. labeling laws[edit]
In the United States, at least 95% of grapes must be from a particular vintage for that year to appear on the label. Prior to the early 1970s, all grapes had to be from the vintage year. All labels must list the alcohol content based on percentage by volume. For bottles labeled as varietals at least 75% of the grape must be of the variety. In Oregon, the requirement is 90%. American wine labels are also required to list if they contain sulfites and carry the Surgeon General's warning about alcohol consumption.[21]
Three-tier distribution[edit]
Following the repeal of Prohibition, the United States federal government allowed each state to regulate its own production and sale of alcohol. For the majority of states this led to the development of a three-tier distribution system between the producer, wholesaler and consumer. Depending on the state there are some exceptions, with wineries allowed to sell directly to consumers on site at the winery or to ship wine across state lines. Some states allow interstate sales through e-commerce. In the 2005 case of Granholm v. Heald, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down state laws banning interstate shipments but allowing in-state sales. This Supreme Court decision meant that states could decide to allow both out-of-state wine sales and in-state sales, or ban both together.[22]
Convenience stores and retail stores are large distributors of wine, with over 175,000 outlets that sell wine across the United States. In addition, there are around 332,000 other locations (bars, restaurants, etc.) that sell wine, contributing to the $30+ billion in annual sales over the past three years.[23] In 2010, the average monthly per-store sales of wine jumped to nearly $12,000 from $9,084 in 2009. The average gross margin dollars from wine increased to $3,324 from $2,616 in the year prior, with gross margin percentages up to an average 28.2 percent in 2010, versus 27 percent in 2009.[24]
Largest producers[edit]
As of 2005 The largest producers of American wine.[25]
E & J Gallo Winery - Accounts for more than a quarter of all U.S. wine sales and is the second largest producer in the world.
Constellation Brands - With foreign wine holdings Constellation is the largest producer in the world and includes Robert Mondavi Winery and Columbia Winery in its portfolio
The Wine Group - San Francisco-based business which owns the Franzia box wine label, Concannon Vineyard and Mogen David kosher wine.
Bronco Wine Company - Owners of the Charles Shaw wine "Two Buck Chuck" line which accounts for nearly 5 million of Bronco's annual average 9 million cases per year.
Diageo - UK based company with American holdings in Sterling Vineyards, Beaulieu Vineyard and Chalone Vineyard
Brown-Forman Corporation - Owners of the Korbel Champagne Cellars brand
Beringer Blass - Australian based wine division of Foster's Group and owner of the Beringer wine and Stags' Leap Winery brands
Jackson Wine Estates - Owners of the Kendall-Jackson brand
See also[edit]
Wine portal
American Viticultural Area
Globalization of wine
Judgment of Paris
References[edit]
Jump up ^ United States Department of Agriculture "Global Wine Report August 2006 Archived April 8, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.," pp. 7-9
^ Jump up to: a b T. Stevenson, The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia Fourth Edition, pg 462, Dorling Kindersly, 2005 ISBN 0-7566-1324-8
^ Jump up to: a b c d H. Johnson & J. Robinson The World Atlas of Wine pg 268 Mitchell Beazley Publishing 2005 ISBN 1-84000-332-4
^ Jump up to: a b c d J. Robinson, ed. The Oxford Companion to Wine, Third Edition p.719; Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-19-860990-6
Jump up ^ Littell's Laws of Kentucky Vol. 2, pp. 268-270
Jump up ^ The Swiss Settlement of Switzerland County, Indiana, page 293, Day Journal of J.J. Dufour
Jump up ^ Kentucky Gazette, March 29, 1803
Jump up ^ Library of Congress Doc#25644 Letters of Jefferson and Doc#25657 Letters of Jefferson
Jump up ^ John James Dufour, The Swiss Settlement of Switzerland County, Indiana, page XVII; and John James Dufour, The American Vine-Dressers Guide, page 10 ISBN 2-940289-00-X
Jump up ^ J. Robinson, ed. The Oxford Companion to Wine Third Edition, p.756; Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-19-860990-6
Jump up ^ Frederick Law Olmsted, A Journey through Texas (1859), pp. 6-7, at Open Library.org, Library of Congress
Jump up ^ Section 29 of the Volstead Act (27 U.S.C. § 46)
Jump up ^ J. Robinson, ed. The Oxford Companion to Wine Third Edition, p.720; Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-19-860990-6
Jump up ^ D. Shaw & A. Bahney, The New York Times (October 31, 2003) JOURNEYS; Welcome to Napa Nation
Jump up ^ "Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau: Statistical Report – Wine (Reporting Period: January 2016 - December 2016), 17 May 2017" (PDF). Retrieved 5 June 2017.
Jump up ^ H. Johnson & J. Robinson The World Atlas of Wine pg 269 Mitchell Beazley Publishing 2005 ISBN 1-84000-332-4
Jump up ^ Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau U.S. Viticultural Areas Archived 2015-03-19 at the Wayback Machine. Updated as of 4/23/2007
Jump up ^ "Texas Wine Labeling, What Exactly is Texas Wine? | Texas Wine Lover". txwinelover.com. Retrieved 2017-02-15.
^ Jump up to: a b T. Stevenson The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia Fourth Edition pg 464 Dorling Kindersly 2005 ISBN 0-7566-1324-8
Jump up ^ "FIGHTING VARIETALS - September 12, 1988". money.cnn.com. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
Jump up ^ T. Stevenson The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia Fourth Edition pg 465-466 Dorling Kindersly 2005 ISBN 0-7566-1324-8
Jump up ^ Jancis Robinson, ed. The Oxford Companion to Wine, Third Edition p.721; Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-19-860990-6
Jump up ^ "A Toast to Wine". SpareFoot. August 8, 2013. Retrieved January 5, 2014.
Jump up ^ "Category Close Up: Pouring on the Profits - NACS Online – Magazine – Past Issues – 2011 – November 2011". www.nacsonline.com. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
Jump up ^ T. Stevenson The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia Fourth Edition pg 468 Dorling Kindersly 2005 ISBN 0-7566-1324-8
Further reading[edit]
Clarke, Oz. Oz Clarke's New Encyclopedia of Wine. NY: Harcourt Brace, 1999.
Johnson, Hugh. Vintage: The Story of Wine. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
Taber, George M. Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine. NY: Scribner, 2005.
External links[edit]
Appellation America.com U.S. wine region and AVA portal
All American Wineries U.S. winery and vineyard guide
Free the Grapes: State wine shipment laws
Doubtless as Good: Thomas Jefferson's Dream for American Wine Fulfilled An online exhibition from the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
[show]
v
t
e
American wine
States
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
[show]
v
t
e
Wine by country
Africa
Algeria
Egypt
Ethiopia
Morocco
Namibia
South Africa
Tanzania
Tunisia
Asia
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Bhutan
China
Georgia
India
Iran
Israel
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Lebanon
Nepal
Palestine
Philippines
Vietnam
Europe
Albania
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malta
Moldova
Montenegro
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
San Marino
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
North America
Canada
Mexico
United States
Oceania
Australia
New Zealand
South America
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Paraguay
Peru
Uruguay
[show]
v
t
e
Agriculture in the United States
History
History
African-American history
Industries
Almond
Apple
Banana
Blueberry
Cherry
Christmas tree
Citrus
Corn
Cotton
Maple syrup
Onion
Pepper
Rice
Spinach
Strawberry
Tea
Tomato
Wheat
Wine
State-specific
Idaho
New York
State-specific by type
Aquaculture in Alaska
Aquaculture in Hawaii
Aquaculture in Maine
Coffee in Hawaii
Garlic in California
Pistachios in California
Walnuts in California
Law and politics
Agricultural policy
Packers and Stockyards Act
Capper-Volstead Act
Grain Futures Act
1929 Agricultural Marketing Act
1938 Agricultural Adjustment Act
National School Lunch Act of 1946
Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954
1956 Soil Bank Act
Food and Agricultural Act of 1962
1964 Food Stamp Act
Food Security Act of 1985
Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990
1990 Wetlands Reserve Program
Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act
Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000
2002 Grassland Reserve Program
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=American_wine&oldid=821499010"
Categories:
American wine
American cuisine
Agriculture in the United States
Wine by country
Hidden categories:
Webarchive template wayback links
Articles needing additional references from May 2013
All articles needing additional references
Navigation menu
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Namespaces
Article
Talk
Variants
Views
Read
Edit
View history
More
Search
Navigation
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
In other projects
Wikimedia Commons
Languages
Deutsch
Eesti
Español
Français
Nederlands
日本語
Svenska
中文
Edit links
This page was last edited on 20 January 2018, at 21:28.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Cookie statement
Mobile view
Enable previews

key: html

type: local

value: div

attrs: id class

values: mw-page-base noprint

values: mw-head-base noprint

value: a

attrs: id class lang

values: firstHeading firstHeading en

values: siteSub noprint

values: jump-to-nav mw-jump

value: b

attrs: href title

value: sup

value: p

values:
/wiki/Wine_making
mw-redirect
Wine making

values:
/wiki/French_Huguenot
mw-redirect
French Huguenot

values:
/wiki/Vevey,_Switzerland
mw-redirect
Vevey, Switzerland

values:
/wiki/Catawba_grape
mw-redirect
Catawba grape

values:
/wiki/Pierce%27s_disease
mw-redirect
Pierce's disease

values:
/wiki/Alcoholic_beverage
mw-redirect
Alcoholic beverage

values: Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution

values: Geography of the United States Rocky Mountain System

values:
col
headerSort
0
columnheader button
Sort ascending

values: Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau

values:
/wiki/Vin_de_table
mw-redirect
Vin de table

values:
/wiki/Champagne_(wine)
mw-redirect
Champagne (wine)

values:
/wiki/Protected_designation_of_origin
mw-redirect
Protected designation of origin

values:
/wiki/Chablis_(wine)
mw-redirect
Chablis (wine)

values:
/wiki/Moselle_(wine)
mw-redirect
Moselle (wine)

values:
/wiki/Port_(wine)
mw-redirect
Port (wine)

values:
/wiki/Tokay_(wine)
mw-redirect
Tokay (wine)

attrs: alt src width height srcset data-file-width data-file-height

values: Help:Introduction to referencing with Wiki Markup/1

values: plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-Refimprove

values:
/wiki/Repeal_of_Prohibition
mw-redirect
Repeal of Prohibition

values:
/wiki/United_States_federal_government
mw-redirect
United States federal government

values:
/wiki/Three-tier_(alcohol_distribution)
mw-redirect
Three-tier (alcohol distribution)

values:
/wiki/Robert_Mondavi_Winery
mw-redirect
Robert Mondavi Winery

values:
/wiki/Brown-Forman_Corporation
mw-redirect
Brown-Forman Corporation

values:
/wiki/Beringer_Blass
mw-redirect
Beringer Blass

values:
/wiki/Beringer_wine
mw-redirect
Beringer wine

values:
/wiki/Jackson_Wine_Estates
mw-redirect
Jackson Wine Estates

values: display:table-cell;padding:0.2em 0.2em 0.2em 0.3em;vertical-align:middle

values: margin:0.5em 0 0.5em 1em;border:solid #aaa 1px

values: -moz-column-width: 30em; -webkit-column-width: 30em; column-width: 30em; list-style-type: decimal;

values:
nofollow
http://wine.appellationamerica.com/
external text

values:
nofollow
http://www.allamericanwineries.com/
external text

values: nowraplinks hlist collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner

values:
navbox-image
6
width:1px;padding:0px 0px 0px 2px

values: nowraplinks collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner

values: Template:Agriculture in the United States

values: Template talk:Agriculture in the United States (page does not exist)

values: History of agriculture in the United States

values: African-American history of agriculture in the United States

values: IHC corn picker, Story County, Iowa, 2011.jpg

values:
navbox-image
5
width:1px;padding:0px 0px 0px 2px

values: Almond production in the United States (page does not exist)

values: Apple production in the United States (page does not exist)

values: Blueberry production in the United States (page does not exist)

values: Christmas tree production in the United States

values: Citrus production in the United States (page does not exist)

values: Maple syrup production in the United States (page does not exist)

values: Onion production in the United States (page does not exist)

values: Pepper production in the United States (page does not exist)

values: Strawberry production in the United States (page does not exist)

values: Tomato production in the United States (page does not exist)

values: Garlic production in California (page does not exist)

values: Pistachio production in California (page does not exist)

values: Walnut production in California (page does not exist)

values: Agricultural policy of the United States

values:
/wiki/Capper-Volstead_Act
mw-redirect
Capper-Volstead Act

values: 1929 Agricultural Marketing Act (page does not exist)

values: 1938 Agricultural Adjustment Act (page does not exist)

values:
/wiki/National_School_Lunch_Act_of_1946
mw-redirect
National School Lunch Act of 1946

values: 1956 Soil Bank Act (page does not exist)

values: Food and Agricultural Act of 1962 (page does not exist)

values: 1964 Food Stamp Act (page does not exist)

values: 1990 Wetlands Reserve Program (page does not exist)

values: Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act

values: Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000

values: 2002 Grassland Reserve Program (page does not exist)

values: Category:Agriculture in the United States

values: Category:Webarchive template wayback links

values: Category:Articles needing additional references from May 2013

values: Category:All articles needing additional references

values: Discussion about edits from this IP address [ctrl-alt-n]

values: A list of edits made from this IP address [ctrl-alt-y]

values: You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory

values: You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [ctrl-alt-o]

values:
/wiki/American_wine
View the content page [ctrl-alt-c]
c

values: Discussion about the content page [ctrl-alt-t]

values: p-namespaces navigation vectorTabs p-namespaces-label

values:
p-variants
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-variants-label

values: Past revisions of this page [ctrl-alt-h]

values: p-views navigation vectorTabs p-views-label

values:
p-cactions
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-cactions-label

values:
mw-wiki-logo
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page

values:
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page [ctrl-alt-z]
z

values: Featured content – the best of Wikipedia

values: Find background information on current events

values: Weinbau in den Vereinigten Staaten – German

values: アメリカ合衆国のワイン – Japanese

values: /static/images/wikimedia-button-1.5x.png 1.5x, /static/images/wikimedia-button-2x.png 2x

values: /static/images/poweredby_mediawiki_132x47.png 1.5x, /static/images/poweredby_mediawiki_176x62.png 2x

values:
suggestions
display: none; font-size: 13px;

values: mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-American_wine rootpage-American_wine skin-vector action-view


text:
The Cat in the Hat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the book written by Dr. Seuss. For the TV special, see The Cat in the Hat (TV special). For the 2003 film, see The Cat in the Hat (film). For the disambiguation, see The Cat in the Hat (disambiguation).
The Cat in the Hat
Book cover
Author
Dr. Seuss
Country
United States
Language
English
Genre
Children's literature
Publisher
Random House, Houghton Mifflin
Publication date
March 12, 1957
ISBN
978-0-7172-6059-1
OCLC
304833
Preceded by
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Followed by
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
The Cat in the Hat is a children's book written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel under the pen name Dr. Seuss and first published in 1957. The story centers on a tall anthropomorphic cat, who wears a red and white-striped hat and a red bow tie. The Cat shows up at the house of Sally and her unnamed brother one rainy day when their mother is away. Ignoring repeated objections from the children's fish, the Cat shows the children a few of his tricks in an attempt to entertain them. In the process he and his companions, Thing One and Thing Two, wreck the house. The children and the fish become more and more alarmed until the Cat produces a machine that he uses to clean everything up. He then says his goodbyes and disappears just before the children's mother walks in.
Geisel created the book in response to a debate in the United States about literacy in early childhood and the ineffectiveness of traditional primers such as those featuring Dick and Jane. Geisel was asked to write a more entertaining primer by William Spaulding, whom he had met during World War II and who was then director of the education division at Houghton Mifflin. However, because Geisel was already under contract with Random House, the two publishers agreed to a deal: Houghton Mifflin published the education edition, which was sold to schools, and Random House published the trade edition, which was sold in bookstores.
Geisel gave varying accounts of how he created The Cat in the Hat, but in the version he told most often he was so frustrated with the word list from which he could choose words to write his story that he decided to scan the list and create a story based on the first two words he found that rhymed. The words he found were cat and hat. The book met with immediate critical acclaim and financial success. Reviewers praised it as an exciting alternative to traditional primers. Three years after its debut, the book had already sold over a million copies, and in 2001 Publishers Weekly listed the book at number nine on its list of best-selling children's books of all time. The book's success led to the creation of Beginner Books, a publishing house centered on producing similar books for young children learning to read. In 1983, Geisel said, "It is the book I'm proudest of because it had something to do with the death of the Dick and Jane primers." The book was adapted into a 1971 animated television special and a 2003 live-action film.
Contents
[hide]
1 Plot
2 Background
3 Characters
4 Creation
5 Publication history
6 Reception
7 Analysis
8 Legacy
9 Adaptations
10 See also
11 References
11.1 Bibliography
Plot[edit]
The story begins as a girl named Sally and her unnamed brother, who serves as the narrator of the book, sit alone in their house on a cold, rainy day, staring wistfully out the window. Then they hear a loud bump which is quickly followed by the arrival of the Cat in the Hat, a tall anthropomorphic cat in a red and white striped hat and a red bow tie. The Cat proposes to entertain the children with some tricks that he knows. The children's pet fish refuses, insisting that the Cat leave. The Cat responds by balancing the fish on the tip of his umbrella. The game quickly becomes more complicated, as the Cat balances himself on a ball and tries to balance lots of household items on his limbs until he falls on his head, dropping everything he was holding. The fish admonishes him again, but the Cat in the Hat just proposes another game.
The Cat brings in a big red box from outside, from which he releases two identical creatures with blue hair and red suits called Thing One and Thing Two. The Things cause more trouble, such as flying kites in the house, knocking pictures off the wall and picking up the children's mother's new polka-dotted gown. All this comes to an end when the fish spots the children's mother out the window. In response, Sally's brother catches the Things in a net, and the Cat, apparently ashamed, stores them back in the big red box. He takes it out the front door as the fish and the children survey the mess he has made. But the Cat soon returns, riding a machine that picks everything up and cleans the house, delighting the fish and the children. The Cat then leaves just before their mother arrives, and the fish and the children are back where they started at the beginning of the story. As she steps in, the mother asks the children what they did while she was out, but the children are hesitant and do not answer. The story ends with the question, "What would you do if your mother asked you?"
Background[edit]
An article by John Hersey about literacy in early childhood provided inspiration for The Cat in the Hat.
Theodor Geisel, writing as Dr. Seuss, created The Cat in the Hat partly in response to the May 24, 1954, Life magazine article by John Hersey titled "Why Do Students Bog Down on First R? A Local Committee Sheds Light on a National Problem: Reading".[1][2] In the article, Hersey was critical of school primers like those featuring Dick and Jane:
In the classroom boys and girls are confronted with books that have insipid illustrations depicting the slicked-up lives of other children... All feature abnormally courteous, unnaturally clean boys and girls.... In bookstores anyone can buy brighter, livelier books featuring strange and wonderful animals and children who behave naturally, i.e., sometimes misbehave... Given incentive from school boards, publishers could do as well with primers.[3]
After detailing many issues contributing to the dilemma connected with student reading levels, Hersey asked toward the end of the article:
Why should [school primers] not have pictures that widen rather than narrow the associative richness the children give to the words they illustrate—drawings like those of the wonderfully imaginative geniuses among children's illustrators, Tenniel, Howard Pyle, "Dr. Seuss", Walt Disney?[4]
This article caught the attention of William Spaulding, who had met Geisel during the war and who was then the director of Houghton Mifflin's education division.[5] Spaulding had also read the best-selling 1955 book Why Johnny Can't Read by Rudolf Flesch.[6] Flesch, like Hersey, criticized primers as boring but also criticized them for teaching reading through word recognition rather than phonics.[7] In 1955, Spaulding invited Geisel to dinner in Boston where he proposed that Geisel create a book "for six- and seven-year olds who had already mastered the basic mechanics of reading".[5] He reportedly challenged, "Write me a story that first-graders can't put down!"[5]
At the back of Why Johnny Can't Read, Flesch had included 72 lists of words that young children should be able to read, and Spaulding provided Geisel with a similar list.[7] Geisel later told biographers Judith and Neil Morgan that Spaulding had supplied him with a list of 348 words that every six-year-old should know and insisted that the book's vocabulary be limited to 225 words.[5] However, according to Philip Nel, Geisel gave varying numbers in interviews from 1964 to 1969.[8] He variously claimed that he could use between 200 and 250 words from a list of between 300 and 400; the finished book contains 236 different words.[8]
Characters[edit]
The Cat in the Hat
Thing One
Thing Two
Sally
Sally's brother
Fish
Mother
Creation[edit]
Geisel gave varying accounts of how he conceived of The Cat in the Hat. According to the story Geisel told most often, he was so frustrated with the word list that William Spaulding had given him that he finally decided to scan the list and create a story out of the first two words he found that rhymed. The words he found were cat and hat.[8] Near the end of his life, Geisel told his biographers, Judith and Neil Morgan, that he conceived the beginnings of the story while he was with Spaulding, in an elevator in the Houghton Mifflin offices in Boston.[9] It was an old, shuddering elevator and was operated by a "small, stooped woman wearing 'a leather half-glove and a secret smile'".[9] Anita Silvey, recounting a similar story, described the woman as "a very elegant, very petite African-American woman named Annie Williams".[10] Geisel told Silvey that, when he sketched the Cat in the Hat, he thought of Williams and gave the character Williams' white gloves and "sly, even foxy smile".[10]
According to Geisel, one of the stories he pitched before The Cat in the Hat involved scaling Mount Everest.
Geisel gave two conflicting, partly fictionalized accounts of the book's creation in two articles, "How Orlo Got His Book" in The New York Times Book Review and "My Hassle with the First Grade Language" in the Chicago Tribune, both published on November 17, 1957.[8] In "My Hassle with the First Grade Language", he wrote about his proposal to a "distinguished schoolbook publisher" to write a book for young children about "scaling the peaks of Everest at 60 degrees below".[11] The publisher was intrigued but informed him that, because of the word list, "you can't use the word scaling. You can't use the word peaks. You can't use Everest. You can't use 60. You can't use degrees. You can't..."[11] Geisel gave a similar account to Robert Cahn for an article in the July 6, 1957, edition of The Saturday Evening Post.[8] In "My Hassle With the First Grade Language", he also told a story of the "three excruciatingly painful weeks" in which he worked on a story about a King Cat and a Queen Cat.[12] However, "queen" was not on the word list, nor did his first grade nephew, Norval, recognize it. So Geisel returned to the work but could then think only of words that started with the letter "q", which did not appear in any word on the list. He then had a similar fascination with the letter "z", which also did not appear in any word on the list. When he did finally finish the book and showed it to his nephew, Norval had already graduated from the first grade and was learning calculus. Philip Nel notes, in his dissection of the article, that Norval was Geisel's invention. Geisel's niece, Peggy Owens, did have a son, but he was only a one-year-old when the article was published.[13]
In "How Orlo Got His Book", he described Orlo, a fictional, archetypal young child who was turned off of reading by the poor selection of simple reading material.[14] To save Orlo the frustration, Geisel decided to write a book for children like Orlo but found the task "not dissimilar to... being lost with a witch in a tunnel of love".[14] He tried to write a story called "The Queen Zebra" but found that both words did not appear on the list. In fact, like Geisel wrote in "My Hassle with the First Grade Language", the letters "q" and "z" did not appear on the list at all. He then tried to write a story about a bird, without using the word bird as it did not appear on the list. He decided to call it a "wing thing" instead but struggled as he discovered that it "couldn't have legs or a beak or a tail. Neither a left foot or a right foot."[15] On his approach to writing The Cat in the Hat he wrote, "The method I used is the same method you use when you sit down to make apple stroodle [sic] without stroodles."[15]
Geisel variously stated that the book took between nine and 18 months to create.[16] Donald Pease notes that he worked on it primarily alone, unlike with previous books, which had been more collaborative efforts between Geisel and his wife, Helen.[17] This marked a general trend in his work and life. As Robert L. Bernstein later said of that period, "The more I saw of him, the more he liked being in that room and creating all by himself."[18] Pease points to Helen's recovery from Guillain–Barré syndrome, which she was diagnosed with in 1954, as the marker for this change.[18]
Publication history[edit]
Bennett Cerf, the head of Random House, negotiated a deal that allowed both Random House and Houghton Mifflin to publish versions of The Cat in the Hat.
Geisel agreed to write The Cat in the Hat at the request of William Spaulding of Houghton Mifflin; however, because Geisel was under contract with Random House, the head of Random House, Bennett Cerf, made a deal with Houghton Mifflin. Random House retained the rights to trade sales, which encompassed copies of the book sold at book stores, while Houghton Mifflin retained the education rights, which encompassed copies sold to schools.[5]
The Houghton Mifflin edition was released in January or February 1957, and the Random House edition was released on March 1.[19] The two editions featured different covers but were otherwise identical.[19] The first edition can be identified by the "200/200" mark in the top right corner of the front dust jacket flap, signifying the $2.00 selling price. The price was reduced to $1.95 on later editions.[20]
According to Judith and Neil Morgan, the book sold well immediately. The trade edition initially sold an average of 12,000 copies a month, a figure which rose rapidly.[21] Bullock's department store in Los Angeles, California, sold out of its first, 100-copy order of the book in a day and quickly reordered 250 more.[21] The Morgans attribute these sales numbers to "playground word-of-mouth", asserting that children heard about the book from their friends and nagged their parents to buy it for them.[21] However, Houghton Mifflin's school edition did not sell as well. As Geisel noted in Jonathan Cott's 1983 profile of him, "Houghton Mifflin... had trouble selling it to the schools; there were a lot of Dick and Jane devotees, and my book was considered too fresh and irreverent. But Bennett Cerf at Random House had asked for trade rights, and it just took off in the bookstores."[22] Geisel told the Morgans, "Parents understood better than school people the necessity for this kind of reader."[21]
After three years in print, The Cat in the Hat had sold nearly one million copies. By then, the book had been translated into French, Chinese, Swedish, and Braille.[21] In 2001, Publishers Weekly placed it at number nine on its list of the best-selling children's books of all time.[23] As of 2007, more than 10 million copies of The Cat in the Hat have been printed, and it has been translated into more than 12 different languages, including Latin, under the title Cattus Petasatus.[24][25] In 2007, on the occasion of the book's fiftieth anniversary, Random House released The Annotated Cat: Under the Hats of Seuss and His Cats, which includes both The Cat in the Hat and its sequel, with annotations and an introduction by Philip Nel.[19]
Reception[edit]
Geisel in 1957, holding a copy of The Cat in the Hat
The book was published to immediate critical acclaim. Some reviewers praised the book as an exciting way to learn to read, particularly compared to the primers that it supplanted. Ellen Lewis Buell, in her review for The New York Times Book Review, noted the book's heavy use of one-syllable words and lively illustrations.[26] She wrote, "Beginning readers and parents who have been helping them through the dreary activities of Dick and Jane and other primer characters are due for a happy surprise."[27] Helen Adams Masten of the Saturday Review called the book Geisel's tour de force and wrote, "Parents and teachers will bless Mr. Geisel for this amusing reader with its ridiculous and lively drawings, for their children are going to have the exciting experience of learning that they can read after all."[28] Polly Goodwin of the Chicago Sunday Tribune predicted that The Cat in the Hat would cause seven- and eight-year-olds to "look with distinct distaste on the drab adventures of standard primer characters".[29]
Both Helen E. Walker of Library Journal and Emily Maxwell of The New Yorker felt that the book would appeal to older children as well as to its target audience of first- and second-graders.[30] The reviewer for The Bookmark concurred, writing, "Recommended enthusiastically as a picture book as well as a reader".[31] In contrast, Heloise P. Mailloux wrote in The Horn Book Magazine, "This is a fine book for remedial purposes, but self-conscious children often refuse material if its seems meant for younger children."[32] She felt that the book's limited vocabulary kept it from reaching "the absurd excellence of early Seuss books".[32]
Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named The Cat in the Hat one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children".[33] In 2012 it was ranked number 36 among the "Top 100 Picture Books" in a survey published by School Library Journal – the third of five Dr. Seuss books on the list.[34] It was awarded the Early Readers BILBY Award in 2004 and 2012.[35]
The book's fiftieth anniversary in 2007 prompted a reevaluation of the book from some critics. Yvonne Coppard, reviewing the fiftieth anniversary edition in Carousel magazine, wondered if the popularity of the Cat and his "delicious naughty behavior" will endure another fifty years. Coppard wrote, "The innocent ignorance of bygone days has given way to an all-embracing, almost paranoid awareness of child protection issues. And here we have the mysterious stranger who comes in, uninvited, while your mother is out."[36]
Analysis[edit]
Philip Nel places the book's title character in the tradition of con artists in American art, including the title characters from Meredith Willson's The Music Man and L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.[37] Nel also contends that Geisel identified with the Cat, pointing to a self portrait of Geisel in which he appears as the Cat, which was published alongside a profile about him in The Saturday Evening Post on July 6, 1957.[37] Michael K. Frith, who worked as Geisel's editor, concurs, arguing that "The Cat in the Hat and Ted Geisel were inseparable and the same. I think there's no question about it. This is someone who delighted in the chaos of life, who delighted in the seeming insanity of the world around him."[37] Ruth MacDonald asserts that the Cat's primary goal in the book is to create fun for the children. The Cat calls it "fun that is funny", which MacDonald distinguishes from the ordinary, serious fun that parents subject their children to.[38] In an article titled "Was the Cat in the Hat Black?", Philip Nel draws connections between the Cat and stereotyped depictions of African-Americans, including minstrel shows, Geisel's own minstrel-inspired cartoons from early in his career, and the use of the term "cat" to refer to jazz musicians.[39] According to Nel, "Even as [Geisel] wrote books designed to challenge prejudice, he never fully shed the cultural assumptions he grew up with, and was likely unaware of the ways in which his visual imagination replicated the racial ideologies he consciously sought to reject."[39]
Geisel once called the fish in The Cat in the Hat "my version of Cotton Mather".
Geisel once called the fish "my version of Cotton Mather", the Puritan moralist who advised the prosecutors during the Salem witch trials.[40] Betty Mensch and Alan Freeman support this view, writing, "Drawing on old Christian symbolism (the fish was an ancient sign of Christianity) Dr. Seuss portrays the fish as a kind of ever-nagging superego, the embodiment of utterly conventionalized morality."[40] Philip Nel notes that other critics have also compared the fish to the superego. Anna Quindlen called the Cat "pure id" and marked the children, as mediators between the Cat and the fish, as the ego.[40] Mensch and Freeman, however, argue that the Cat shows elements of both id and ego.[40]
In her analysis of the fish, MacDonald asserts that it represents the voice of the children's absent mother.[41] Its conflict with the Cat, not only over the Cat's uninvited presence but also their inherent predator-prey relationship, provides the tension of the story. She points out that on the last page, while the children are hesitant to tell their mother about what happened in her absence, the fish gives a knowing look to the readers to assure them "that something did go on but that silence is the better part of valor in this case".[41] Alison Lurie agrees, writing, "there is a strong suggestion that they might not tell her."[42] She argues that, in the Cat's destruction of the house, "the kids—and not only those in the story, but those who read it—have vicariously given full rein to their destructive impulses without guilt or consequences."[42] For a 1983 article, Geisel told Jonathan Cott, "The Cat in the Hat is a revolt against authority, but it's ameliorated by the fact that the Cat cleans up everything at the end. It's revolutionary in that it goes as far as Kerensky and then stops. It doesn't go quite as far as Lenin."[43]
Donald Pease notes that The Cat in the Hat shares some structural similarities with other Dr. Seuss books. Like earlier books, The Cat in the Hat starts with "a child's feeling of discontent with his mundane circumstances" which is soon enhanced by make believe.[44] The book starts in a factual, realistic world, which crosses over into the world of make believe with the loud bump that heralds the arrival of the Cat.[44] However, this is the first Dr. Seuss book in which the fantasy characters, i.e. the Cat and his companions, are not products of the children's imagination.[44] It also differs from previous books in that Sally and her brother actively participate in the fantasy world; they also have a changed opinion of the Cat and his world by the story's end.[44]
Legacy[edit]
Ruth MacDonald asserts, "The Cat in the Hat is the book that made Dr. Seuss famous. Without The Cat, Seuss would have remained a minor light in the history of children's literature."[45] Donald Pease concurs, writing, "The Cat in the Hat is the classic in the archive of Dr. Seuss stories for which it serves as a cornerstone and a linchpin. Before writing it Geisel was better known for the 'Quick, Henry, the Flit!' ad campaign than for his nine children's books."[46] The publication and popularity of the book thrust Geisel into the center of the United States literacy debate, what Pease called "the most important academic controversy" of the Cold War era.[46] Academic Louis Menand contends that "The Cat in the Hat transformed the nature of primary education and the nature of children's books. It not only stood for the idea that reading ought to be taught by phonics; it also stood for the idea that language skills—and many other subjects—ought to be taught through illustrated storybooks, rather than primers and textbooks."[47] In 1983, Geisel told Jonathan Cott, "It is the book I'm proudest of because it had something to do with the death of the Dick and Jane primers."[22]
A Cat in the Hat Christmas decoration in the White House, 2003
The book led directly to the creation of Beginner Books, a publishing house centered on producing books like The Cat in the Hat for beginning readers.[21] According to Judith and Neil Morgan, when the book caught the attention of Phyllis Cerf, the wife of Geisel's publisher, Bennett Cerf, she arranged for a meeting with Geisel, where the two agreed to create Beginner Books.[21] Geisel became the president and editor, and the Cat in the Hat served as their mascot. Geisel's wife, Helen, was made third partner. Random House served as distributor[21] until 1960, when Random House purchased Beginner Books.[48] Geisel wrote multiple books for the series, including The Cat in the Hat Comes Back (1958), Green Eggs and Ham (1960), Hop on Pop (1963), and Fox in Socks (1965).[49] He initially used word lists of limited vocabularies to create these books, as he had with The Cat in the Hat, but moved away from the lists as he came to believe "that a child could learn any amount of words if fed them slowly and if the books were amply illustrated".[50] Other authors also contributed notable books to the series, including A Fly Went By (1958), Sam and the Firefly (1958), Go, Dog. Go! (1961), and The Big Honey Hunt (1962).[49]
The book, or elements of it, has been mentioned multiple times in United States politics. The image of the Cat balancing many objects on his body while in turn balancing himself on a ball has been included in political cartoons and articles. Political caricaturists have portrayed both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush in this way.[51] In 2004, MAD magazine published "The Strange Similarities Between the Bush Administration and the World of Dr. Seuss", an article which matched quotes from White House officials to excerpts taken from Dr. Seuss books, and in which George W. Bush's State of the Union promises were contrasted with the Cat vowing (in part), "I can hold up the cup and the milk and the cake! I can hold up these books! And the fish on a rake!"[52] In 2007, during the 110th Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid compared the impasse over a bill to reform immigration with the mess created by the Cat. He read lines of the book from the Senate floor.[53] He then carried forward his analogy hoping the impasse would be straightened out for "If you go back and read Dr. Seuss, the cat manages to clean up the mess."[54] In 1999, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp featuring the Cat in the Hat.[55]
The Cat in the Hat's popularity also led to increased popularity and exposure for Geisel's previous children's books. For example, 1940's Horton Hatches the Egg had sold 5,801 copies in its opening year and 1,645 the following year. In 1958, the year after the publication of The Cat in the Hat, 27,643 copies of Horton were sold, and by 1960 the book had sold a total of over 200,000 copies.[46]
Adaptations[edit]
The Cat in the Hat has been adapted for various media, including theater, television, film, and educational software. The animated musical TV special premiered in 1971 and starred Allan Sherman as the Cat. In 2003, a live-action film adaptation was released, starring Mike Myers as the Cat, Spencer Breslin as Conrad, and Dakota Fanning as Sally. Boxoffice.com reports that the film grossed $133,960,541 worldwide on an estimated $165 million budget.[56] In 2012, following the financial success of The Lorax, the animated film adaptation of the Dr. Seuss book of the same name, Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment announced plans to produce a CGI adaptation of the book.[57] Rob Lieber will write the script, Chris Meledandri will produce, and Audrey Geisel will be the executive producer.
In 2009, the Royal National Theatre created a stage version of the book, adapted and directed by Katie Mitchell.[58] Seussical, a musical adaptation that incorporates aspects of many Dr. Seuss works, features the Cat in the Hat as narrator.[59] The musical received weak reviews when it opened, in November 2001, but eventually became a staple in regional and school theaters.[59] The Cat also stars in the 1982 television film The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat and the 2010 animated television series The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! A ride at Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure park in Orlando, Florida, is based around The Cat in the Hat.[60]
See also[edit]
Dr. Seuss Memorial
Grinch
Horton the Elephant
References[edit]
Jump up ^ O'Brien, Anne. "An Educational Innovation: The Cat in the Hat". Learning First Alliance. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
Jump up ^ Nel 2004, p. 29
Jump up ^ Hersey 1954, pp. 136-137
Jump up ^ Hersey 1954, p. 148
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Morgan 1995, pp. 153-154
Jump up ^ Menander 2002, p. 1
^ Jump up to: a b Menand 2002, p. 2
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Nel 2007, pp. 24-26
^ Jump up to: a b Morgan 1995, p. 153
^ Jump up to: a b Silvey, Anita (March 1, 2007). "How the Cat Got His Smile". Listen Morning Edition. NPR.
^ Jump up to: a b "My Hassle With the First Grade Language" 1957, p. 171
Jump up ^ "My Hassle With the First Grade Language" 1957, p. 173
Jump up ^ "My Hassle With the First Grade Language" 1957, p. 170
^ Jump up to: a b "How Orlo Got His Book" 1957, p. 167
^ Jump up to: a b "How Orlo Got His Book" 1957, p. 169
Jump up ^ Nel 2004, p. 30
Jump up ^ Pease 2010, pp. 112–115
^ Jump up to: a b Pease 2010, p. 114
^ Jump up to: a b c Neary, Lynn. "Fifty Years of 'The Cat in the Hat'". NPR. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
Jump up ^ Nel 2007, p. 20
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Morgan 1995, pp. 156–157
^ Jump up to: a b Cott 1983, p. 115
Jump up ^ "All-Time Bestselling Children's Books". Publishers Weekly. 17 December 2001. Archived from the original on December 25, 2005.
Jump up ^ Horrigan, Kevin. "The Cat at 50: Still lots of good fun that is funny". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
Jump up ^ Dr. Seuss; Jennifer Morrish Tunberg; Terence Tunberg (2000). Cattus petasatus: The cat in the hat in Latin (in Latin). Bolchazy-Carducci. p. 75. ISBN 9780865164710. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
Jump up ^ Buell, Ellen Lewis (17 March 1957). "High Jinks at Home". The New York Times Book Review, as quoted in Fensch 2001, pp. 124–125. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
Jump up ^ Buell, Ellen Lewis (17 March 1957). "High Jinks at Home". The New York Times Book Review, as quoted in Nel 2007, pp. 9–10. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
Jump up ^ Masten, Helen Adams (11 May 1957). "The Cat in the Hat". Saturday Review, as quoted in Nel 2007, pp. 9–10. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
Jump up ^ Goodwin, Polly (12 May 1957). "Hurray for Dr. Seuss!". Chicago Sunday Tribune. Chicago IL, as quoted in Nel 2007, pp. 9–10. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
Jump up ^ Nel 2007, pp. 9–10
Jump up ^ "Some Early Spring Books for Children and Young People". The Bookmark. April 1957, as quoted in Fensch 2001, pp. 124–125 |access-date= requires |url= (help)
^ Jump up to: a b Mailloux, Heloise P. (June 1957). "Late Spring Book List". The Horn Book Magazine, as quoted in Nel 2007, pp. 9–10. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
Jump up ^ National Education Association (2007). "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children". Retrieved August 19, 2012.
Jump up ^ Bird, Elizabeth (July 6, 2012). "Top 100 Picture Books Poll Results". A Fuse #8 Production. Blog. School Library Journal (blog.schoollibraryjournal.com). Retrieved August 19, 2012.
Jump up ^ "Previous Winners of the BILBY Awards: 2001 to date" (PDF). www.cbcaqld.org. The Children's Book Council of Australia Queensland Branch. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
Jump up ^ Coppard, Yvonne (Autumn 2007). "The Cat in the Hat Review". Carousel (37).
^ Jump up to: a b c Nel 2004, p. 118-119
Jump up ^ MacDonald 1986, pp. 110–111
^ Jump up to: a b Nel, Philip (2014). "Was the Cat in the Hat Black?: Exploring Dr. Seuss’s Racial Imagination". Children's Literature. 42 (1): 71–98. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
^ Jump up to: a b c d Nel 2007, 40
^ Jump up to: a b MacDonald 1986, pp. 114–115
^ Jump up to: a b Lurie 1992, p. 70
Jump up ^ Cott 1983, p. 117
^ Jump up to: a b c d Pease 2010, pp. 103–105
Jump up ^ MacDonald 1988, p. 105
^ Jump up to: a b c Pease 2010, pp. 111–112
Jump up ^ Menand 2002, p. 3
Jump up ^ Morgan 1995, p. 167
^ Jump up to: a b "First Edition Beginner Books". 1stedition.net. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
Jump up ^ "Somebody's Got to Win" 1986, p. 126
Jump up ^ Nel 2007, p. 48
Jump up ^ MAD Magazine #447, November 2004, Drucker/Devlin
Jump up ^ Dana Milbank (June 8, 2007). "Snubbing the White House, Without Snubbing the White House". The Washington Post.
Jump up ^ Stephen Dinan (June 6, 2007). "Senate tries to cool immigration bill heat". The Washington Times.
Jump up ^ Fensch 2001, p. 176
Jump up ^ "Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat". Boxoffice.com. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
Jump up ^ Minovitz, Ethan (March 18, 2012). "The Cat In The Hat comes back as animated feature". Big Cartoon News. Retrieved March 18, 2012.
Jump up ^ Spencer, Charles (17 December 2009). "The Cat in the Hat at the National Theatre, review". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
^ Jump up to: a b Connema, Richard. "Seussical is a Charming Musical". Talkin Broadway. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
Jump up ^ "Cat in the Hat at Universal's Islands of Adventure". Orlando Informer. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
Bibliography[edit]
Cott, Jonathan (1983). "The Good Dr. Seuss". In Fensch, Thomas. Of Sneetches and Whos and the Good Dr. Seuss: Essays on the Writings and Life of Theodor Geisel. McFarland & Company. pp. 99–123. ISBN 0-7864-0388-8.
Fensch, Thomas (2001). The Man Who Was Dr. Seuss. Woodlands: New Century Books. ISBN 0-930751-11-6.
Fensch, Thomas, ed. (April 14, 1986). "'Somebody's Got to Win' in Kids' Books: An Interview with Dr. Seuss on His Books for Children, Young and Old". Of Sneetches and Whos and the Good Dr. Seuss: Essays on the Writings and Life of Theodor Geisel. McFarland & Company. pp. 125–127. ISBN 0-7864-0388-8.
Hersey, John (24 May 1954). "Why Do Students Bog Down on First R?". Life. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
Lurie, Alison (1992). "The Cabinet of Dr. Seuss". Popular Culture: An Introductory Text. ISBN 978-0-87972-572-3.
MacDonald, Ruth (1988). Dr. Seuss. Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-7524-2.
Menand, Louis. "Cat People: What Dr. Seuss Really Taught Us". The New Yorker. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
Morgan, Judith; Neil Morgan (1995). Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel. Random House. ISBN 0-679-41686-2.
Nel, Philip (2007). The Annotated Cat: Under the Hats of Seuss And His Cats. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-375-83369-4.
Nel, Philip (2004). Dr. Seuss: American Icon. Continuum Publishing. ISBN 0-8264-1434-6.
Pease, Donald E. (2010). Theodor Seuss Geisel. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-532302-3.
Seuss, Dr. (17 November 1957). "How Orlo Got His Book". In Nel, Philip. The Annotated Cat: Under the Hats of Seuss And His Cats. Random House. pp. 167–169. ISBN 978-0-375-83369-4.
Seuss, Dr. (17 November 1957). "My Hassle With the First Grade Language". In Nel, Philip. The Annotated Cat: Under the Hats of Seuss And His Cats. Random House. pp. 170–173. ISBN 978-0-375-83369-4.
[show]
v
t
e
Dr. Seuss
Characters
The Cat in the Hat
The Grinch
Horton the Elephant
Bartholomew Cubbins
Bibliography
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
The King's Stilts
The Seven Lady Godivas
Horton Hatches the Egg
McElligot's Pool
Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose
Bartholomew and the Oobleck
If I Ran the Zoo
Scrambled Eggs Super!
Horton Hears a Who!
On Beyond Zebra!
If I Ran the Circus
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories
Happy Birthday to You!
Green Eggs and Ham
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
The Sneetches and Other Stories
Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book
Dr. Seuss's ABC
Fox in Socks
Hop on Pop
I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew
Come over to My House 1
The Foot Book
I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and Other Stories
Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?: Dr. Seuss's Book of Wonderful Noises!
The Lorax
Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!
Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?
Wacky Wednesday 1
Great Day for Up!
Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!
The Cat's Quizzer
I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!
Oh Say Can You Say?
The Butter Battle Book
You're Only Old Once!
I Am Not Going to Get Up Today!
Oh, the Places You'll Go!
There's a Wocket in My Pocket
I Wish That I Had Duck Feet 1
Daisy-Head Mayzie 2
My Many Colored Days 2
Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! 2
The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories 2
Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories 2
What Pet Should I Get? 2
Adaptations
Television
The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show (1956–57)
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
Horton Hears a Who! (1970)
The Cat in the Hat (1971)
The Lorax (1972)
Dr. Seuss on the Loose (1973)
The Hoober-Bloob Highway (1975)
Halloween Is Grinch Night (1977)
Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You? (1980)
The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (1982)
The Butter Battle Book (1989)
In Search of Dr. Seuss (1994)
Daisy-Head Mayzie (1995)
The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss (1996–98)
Gerald McBoing-Boing (2005–07)
The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! (2010–present)
Green Eggs and Ham (2018)
Film
Horton Hatches the Egg (short; 1942)
Gerald McBoing-Boing (short; 1950)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
The Cat in the Hat (2003)
Horton Hears a Who! (2008)
The Lorax (2012)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2018)
Other media
Welcome (Russian short film)
Seussical (musical)
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical
The Grinch (video game)
Dr. Seuss: How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (video game)
"You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" (song)
The Lorax (play)
Other works
Private Snafu
The Pocket Book of Boners
Your Job in Germany
Our Job in Japan
Design for Death
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T
Hejji
Society of Red Tape Cutters
Flit
Related
A Fish out of Water
Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum
Beginner Books
Dr. Seuss Goes to War
The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss National Memorial
Geisel Award
Geisel Library
Geisel School of Medicine
Helen Palmer Geisel
PM
Political messages of Dr. Seuss
Read Across America
Seuss Landing
1 as "Theo. LeSieg". 2 Posthumous.
[show]
v
t
e
Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat (1957)
Live-action film
The Cat in the Hat (2003)
Television
The Cat in the Hat (1971)
Dr. Seuss on the Loose (1973)
The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (1982)
The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! (2010–present)
episodes
Books
The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
The Cat's Quizzer
I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!
Daisy-Head Mayzie
Stage
Seussical
Related
Dr. Seuss Memorial
I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and Other Stories
In Search of Dr. Seuss (1994)
[show]
v
t
e
Books I Love Best Yearly: Early Readers Award
Superfudge by Judy Blume (1990)
The BFG by Roald Dahl (1991)
Unreal! by Paul Jennings (1992)
The Witches by Roald Dahl (1993)
Undone! by Paul Jennings (1994)
The Lion King by Gina Ingoglio (1995)
Where's Wally? by Martin Handford (1996)
Bamboozled by David Legge (1997)
The Midnight Gang by Margaret Wild and Ann James (1998)
Gasp! by Terry Denton (1999)
Grandad's Teeth by Rod Clement (2000)
Where's Wally? by Martin Handford (2001)
Buffy - An Adventure Story by Bob Graham (2002)
The Very Blue Thingamajig by Narelle Oliver (2003)
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss (2004)
Old Tom's Holiday by Leigh Hobbs (2005)
Baby Boomsticks by Margaret Wild (2006)
Children's literature portal
1950s portal
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Cat_in_the_Hat&oldid=805648174"
Categories:
1957 children's books
Books by Dr. Seuss
Fictional cats
Literature featuring anthropomorphic characters
Dr. Seuss characters
Fictional characters introduced in 1957
BILBY Award-winning works
Cat mascots
American children's picture books
Cats in literature
Books adapted into films
Hidden categories:
CS1 Latin-language sources (la)
Pages using citations with accessdate and no URL
Good articles
Pages to import images to Wikidata
Navigation menu
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Namespaces
Article
Talk
Variants
Views
Read
Edit
View history
More
Search
Navigation
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
In other projects
Wikimedia Commons
Languages
Afrikaans
العربية
Башҡортса
Čeština
Cymraeg
Español
Français
Galego
Italiano
עברית
Latina
Malagasy
മലയാളം
Norsk
Polski
Português
Русский
Simple English
Svenska
Türkçe
Українська
Edit links
This page was last edited on 16 October 2017, at 19:11.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Cookie statement
Mobile view
Enable previews

values: mw-page-base noprint

values: mw-head-base noprint

value: img

values: This is a good article. Click here for more information.

attrs: class id

value: i

values: firstHeading firstHeading en

values: siteSub noprint

values: jump-to-nav mw-jump

attrs: href class title

attrs: role class

values:
note
hatnote navigation-not-searchable

value: caption

attrs: href class

value: td

attrs: colspan style

value: tr

value: th

values:
/wiki/Houghton_Mifflin
mw-redirect
Houghton Mifflin

values:
nofollow
external text
https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/304833

values:
/wiki/Children%27s_book
mw-redirect
Children's book

attrs: alt src width height class srcset data-file-width data-file-height

values:
/wiki/Helen_Palmer_Geisel
mw-redirect
Helen Palmer Geisel

values:
/wiki/Minstrel_shows
mw-redirect
Minstrel shows

values:
/wiki/Mike_Myers_(actor)
mw-redirect
Mike Myers (actor)

values:
/wiki/Universal_Studios
mw-redirect
Universal Studios

values:
/wiki/Audrey_Geisel
mw-redirect
Audrey Geisel

values:
nofollow
http://www.nea.org/grants/13154.htm/
external text

values: -moz-column-width: 30em; -webkit-column-width: 30em; column-width: 30em; list-style-type: decimal;

values: Continuum International Publishing Group

values:
/wiki/The_Gerald_McBoing-Boing_Show
mw-redirect
The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show

values: Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (TV special)

values: Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000 film)

values: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2018 film)

values:
/wiki/A_Fish_out_of_Water_(book)
mw-redirect
A Fish out of Water (book)

values:
/wiki/Seuss_Landing
mw-redirect
Seuss Landing

values: nowraplinks hlist collapsible collapsed navbox-inner

values: List of The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! episodes

values: nowraplinks collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner

values:
/wiki/Unreal_(book)
mw-redirect
Unreal (book)

values:
/wiki/The_Witches_(book)
mw-redirect
The Witches (book)

values:
/wiki/Undone_(book)
mw-redirect
Undone (book)

values:
/wiki/Bob_Graham_(author_/_illustrator)
mw-redirect
Bob Graham (author / illustrator)

values:
noprint metadata navbox
navigation
Portals
font-weight:bold;padding:0.4em 2em

values: Category:Literature featuring anthropomorphic characters

values: Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1957

values: Category:American children's picture books

values: Category:CS1 Latin-language sources (la)

values: Category:Pages using citations with accessdate and no URL

values: Category:Pages to import images to Wikidata

values: Discussion about edits from this IP address [ctrl-alt-n]

values: A list of edits made from this IP address [ctrl-alt-y]

values: You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory

values: You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [ctrl-alt-o]

values:
/wiki/The_Cat_in_the_Hat
View the content page [ctrl-alt-c]
c

values:
/wiki/Special:Random
Load a random article [ctrl-alt-x]
x

values: portal navigation p-navigation p-navigation-label

values: Guidance on how to use and edit Wikipedia

values: About the project, what you can do, where to find things

values: A list of recent changes in the wiki [ctrl-alt-r]

values: portal navigation p-interaction p-interaction-label

values: List of all English Wikipedia pages containing links to this page [ctrl-alt-j]

values: Recent changes in pages linked from this page [ctrl-alt-k]

values:
/wiki/Wikipedia:File_Upload_Wizard
Upload files [ctrl-alt-u]
u

values: A list of all special pages [ctrl-alt-q]

values: Permanent link to this revision of the page

values: Link to connected data repository item [ctrl-alt-g]

values: Printable version of this page [ctrl-alt-p]

values: portal navigation p-wikibase-otherprojects p-wikibase-otherprojects-label

values:
uls-settings-trigger
Language settings
0
button
true

values: القطة ذو القبعة (رواية) – Arabic

values: Ҡалпаҡлы Бесәй – Bashkir

values: חתול תעלול – Hebrew

values: ദി ക്യാറ്റ് ഇൻ ദി ഹാറ്റ് – Malayalam

values:
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kot_Prot
Kot Prot – Polish
pl
pl
interlanguage-link-target

values: Кот в шляпе – Russian

values: Кіт у капелюсі – Ukrainian

values: mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-The_Cat_in_the_Hat rootpage-The_Cat_in_the_Hat vector-experimental-print-styles vector-nav-directionality skin-vector action-view