The Cat in the Hat 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". 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. 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
The Cat in the Hat the cat manages to clean up the mess." In 1999, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp featuring the Cat in the Hat. "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. "The Cat in the Hat" has