Seuss himself made changes to two of his books: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and The Lorax, begrudgingly and willingly.
1. "In And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, published in 1937, we see a man who eats with sticks; he is colored yellow. He has a triangular, conical hat, a long pig tail, and of course, slanted eyes. In 1978, in response to criticism, Seuss revised that drawing. He removed the color yellow and took off the pig tail. It’s still a stereotype—just a less egregious one. In describing that change, he would say things like, "I removed the color and the pigtail. Now he looks like an Irishman," which is supposed to be a joke, but it also diminishes the importance of that change, and the seriousness of making the change. The basic themes of caricature across these six books are people of African descent, Asian descent, Middle Eastern descent, and Indigenous people."
The change to And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street was something he did begrudgingly. "Critiques of gender in his works—he dismissed those out of hand. In Mulberry Street, there’s the line, "Say, even Jane could think of that.” Why does it have to be a girl who has the inferior imagination? He just mocked that criticism."
2. There were other occasions of him being called to respond to criticism during his lifetime, and he was hugely resistant to it. "There was one change that he made willingly; it was to The Lorax. There was a couplet about Lake Erie in there. It was “someplace that isn't so smeary,” I think, and then a line like, “Things are pretty bad enough at Lake Erie.” The people who cleaned up Lake Erie contacted him and said, "Hey, could you take this line out?" He did it willingly.
"Dr. Philip Nel, a distinguished professor of children’s literature at Kansas State University and the author of "Was The Cat in the Hat Black?," tells Esquire that this conversation about racism and prejudice in Seuss’ books has been underway for decades. Even during the author’s lifetime, Nel reports, Seuss was roundly criticized for racial and gender stereotypes in his books, yet he was also the author of actively anti-racist narratives, like Horton Hears a Who and The Sneetches. Nel spoke with Esquire by phone to explain how we should understand this ongoing conversation about updating and curating Seuss' legacy, as well as how we should talk to children about books that contain racist content."
"One of the themes across Seuss’ work is the use of exotic, national, racial, and ethnic others as sources of humor. I don't think he meant that with malice, but to use someone's nationality or race as a punchline doesn't land well, especially if you are a person of that nationality or race. I don't think he thought about how that might be hurtful to the people who identify themselves in that way. I think it's important for people to understand that a lot of Seuss' racism here is operating unconsciously. It's something he learned from being steeped in a very racist American culture, which remains true of American culture today, although in different ways."
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a35738910/dr-seuss-racism-books-cancel-culture-interview...
