And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937) wasn't just the first book Theodor Geisel published as Dr. Seuss. It was among the six titles his literary estate ceased publishing and licensing last year because they "portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong."
The volume is narrated by young Marco, whose father upbraids him for embroidering his humdrum life: "Stop telling such outlandish tales. Stop turning minnows into whales." But the boy can't help it, and, as he walks home from school, he pretends a "broken-down wagon that's drawn by a horse" is an increasingly fantastical procession, including an elephant driven by a "rajah" with a brass band in tow and, alas, "a Chinaman who eats with sticks." In a 1978 update, that last figure becomes "a Chinese man," his pigtail and ostentatiously yellow coloring removed.
