The Cat in the Hat The Cat in the Hat 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 brother one rainy day when their mother is away. Despite the repeated objections of 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
The Cat in the Hat he discovered that it "couldn't have "legs" or a "beak" or a "tail". Neither a "left" foot or a "right" foot." 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." Geisel variously stated that the book took between nine and 18 months to create. 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. This marked a general trend in