The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins was published by Vanguard Press in September 1938 — Seuss’s second book, following Mulberry Street by a year — and is his only major work written in prose rather than verse. Bartholomew Cubbins, a peasant boy in the Kingdom of Didd, is required to remove his hat when King Derwin passes through town. He takes it off. Another hat appears. He takes that off. Another appears. The king is outraged; Bartholomew is arrested; the executioner is summoned. But each time Bartholomew removes a hat, a new one materializes, and the hats grow progressively more elaborate until hat number 500 is so magnificent that the king offers to buy it for 500 pieces of gold.
The Book
The story reads like Kafka for children — a protagonist trapped in a situation he cannot control, accused of a transgression he did not commit, facing escalating punishment for something that is not his fault. The king’s fury is genuine and dangerous; the executioner refuses to behead someone wearing a hat (professional standards); Sir Doofle refuses to push Bartholomew off the tower because the hat might blow away and he’d have to go get it.
Seuss never explains where the hats come from. This refusal to explain — the acceptance of the inexplicable — is the book’s deepest lesson: some things in life simply cannot be rationally accounted for, and the response of authority to the inexplicable is to punish it.
Collecting The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
First edition (Vanguard Press, New York, 1938): Pictorial boards. Black and white illustrations with red spot color.
Market values:
- First edition, fine condition: $3,000–$10,000
- Good condition: $800–$2,000
- Later printings: $20–$50
As Seuss’s second book and one of only two Vanguard Press titles (the other being Mulberry Street), this has significant bibliographic interest.