The Cat in the Hat is back in a lost Dr. Seuss book
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How was the completed Dr. Seuss manuscript discovered in the UC San Diego archives?
United States, you have to use your brain. Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, and Montana, M-I-S-S, Mississippi, Maryland, Michigan, and Maine.
The song you just heard isn't just any song about the U.S., but rather one that was recently commissioned to mark the posthumous publication of Sing the 50 United States, a completed, unpublished Dr. Seuss manuscript that was hiding in plain sight for decades and discovered just in time to help mark the country's 250th anniversary. The completed draft was discovered last year inside the Dr. Seuss archives at UC San Diego, among thousands of files connected to the late Theodore Geisel's artwork and writing. So why is this book only seeing the light of day now? Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Wednesday, July 15th, 2026. USA Today Books reporter Claire Mulroy joins me now to talk about how this rare Dr. Seuss book was uncovered, what it reveals about Geisel's creative process, and how publishers are thinking about his complicated legacy today.
Claire, thank you so much for being here.
Dana, thanks for having me.
Claire, take us inside the archives. Where exactly was this manuscript found, and how did the team stumble across it?
Yeah. So at UC San Diego, there is this pretty incredibly designed Geisel library. But inside of it is an unassuming room where the Dr. Seuss archives are. There's plenty of different other types of archives here.
What was happening at the archives that led publishers to find Sing the 50 United States?
But, you know, I think the Dr. Seuss archives are among the most notable. There's an astounding 20,000 files, the archivists told me. This was May of 2025. The Dr. Seuss Enterprises and publishers at Penguin Random House were searching for Cat in the Hat drawings because Ted Geisel drew them everywhere. The Cat in the Hat turns 70 next year. So they were looking for new marketing material that they could use. And that's when they found Seeing the 50 United States, a completed manuscript with a few sketches and a storyboard. And they realized that I think this is a book.
Can you describe this amazing moment when publishers realized this wasn't just a sketch or a loose idea, but a completed, unpublished Dr. Seuss book?
Yeah, I think I'm going to use Kat Reynolds, the editor at Penguin Random House. This is what she told me because I think it just sums it up perfectly. She said that this was total kismet. She called it a coincidence of cosmic proportions that they should find it just a year before the 250th anniversary of the United States.
The book is called Sing the 50 United States. With the title, we can easily guess what's in the book. But can you describe the story?
How did publishers realize the find was a finished, unpublished Dr. Seuss book?
It's pretty much like it sounds. You know, the cat in the hat is trying to remember the names of all 50 states. I feel like I remember being in fourth grade and trying to do that myself for an upcoming test in school. He's trying and kind of failing to remember. He gets to about 49 of them and then he gets stuck. But luckily, the two little cats come in and they can help him finish the job. There's also an accompanying song, which you heard at the top of this episode. You can see from Geisel's manuscript notes and just the title alone that he intended this to be a song.
And you'll be able to watch that video if you click the link in today's show notes. Claire, how does this book fit into the wider Dr. Seuss universe?
I mean, there's the obvious of the cat in the hat. Here he's kind of our protagonist leading us along in this story. I think besides that, it kind of fits in the wider goal of him supporting children's learning. Way back when he wrote The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham, you can see him using these books and this list of 300-something words that children are supposed to learn by a certain age when they're young. And here you can see that he thought it was important for kids to learn the geography of the United States.
You write that this manuscript was unusually complete.
What is the story and format of Sing the 50 United States?
Were there any major changes needed before the book could be published?
Not to the manuscript, no.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How was the completed Dr. Seuss manuscript discovered in the UC San Diego archives?
0:03–1:35
2
What was happening at the archives that led publishers to find Sing the 50 United States?
1:35–2:46
3
How did publishers realize the find was a finished, unpublished Dr. Seuss book?
2:46–3:53
4
What is the story and format of Sing the 50 United States?
3:53–4:54
5
How complete was Geisel’s manuscript and what editorial work was required before publication?
4:54–6:03
6
What artwork, sketches, and storyboards did Geisel leave behind for this book?
6:03–7:41
7
What does the manuscript reveal about Dr. Seuss’s creative process and timeline?
7:41–9:14
8
How are publishers reconciling Dr. Seuss’s complicated legacy while releasing new material?
9:14–10:31
Speakers
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