The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins

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The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
The 500 hats of bartholomew cubbins.jpg
AuthorDr. Seuss
Cover artistDr. Seuss
CountryUnited States
GenreChildren's literature
PublisherVanguard Press
Publication date
September 1, 1938 (renewed 1965)
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Preceded byAnd to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street 
Followed byThe King's Stilts 

The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins is a children's book, written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel under the pen name Dr. Seuss and published by Vanguard Press in 1938. Unlike the majority of Geisel's books, it is written in prose rather than rhyming and metered verse. Geisel, who collected hats, got the idea for the story on a commuter train from New York to New England while he was sitting behind a businessman wearing a hat; the passenger was so stiff and formal that Geisel idly wondered what would happen if he took the man's hat and threw it out the window. Geisel concluded that the man was so "stuffy" that he would just grow a new one.[1]


Plot summary[edit]





  • Geisel wrote the script for the 1943 Puppetoon short of the same name for Paramount Pictures, which was produced by George Pal. It also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Short (Cartoon).[4] Unlike the book's illustrations, in which Cubbins' hats were all the same one, the hats in the film were of many different kinds.
  • Minnesota's Children's Theatre Company produced a version of The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins for the stage in 1973, and says this was the first theater adaptation of a Dr. Seuss work.[5]


  1. ^ Washington Post: "Dr. Seuss" 1979
  2. ^ a b c Morgan & Morgan, p. 89
  3. ^ Rate Your Music: "500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins" album
  4. ^ "The 16th Academy Awards (1944) Nominees and Winners". (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences). Archived from the original on 2013-10-14. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  5. ^ Children's Theatre Company and the Seuss Connection


External links[edit]