Dr. Seuss Enterprises recently announced it will discontinue printing six Dr. Seuss books because they present racist and insensitive imagery.
One of these self-banned titles is "McElligot's Pool". I no longer have a copy of "McElligot's Pool", so I don't remember its objectionable content. A Google search returned only pages and pages of lazy "reaction" articles in response to the company's announcement, so apparently no other reporter is aware of it, either. Some might say our lack of awareness illustrates the problem.
Published in 1947, "McElligot's Pool" stands out to me because of its importance to American environmental awareness.
In 2019, Sid Dobrin wrote the new millennium's most important book about fisheries conservation, "Fishing, Gone?" About McElligot's Pool, Dobrin said this: "If there were one book that I would recommend to anglers, one book that all anglers should read, one book that summarized the new recreational angler's ethic better than most and that truly conveyed what it means to be a recreational angler, one book that I read and reread, then that book would be "McElligot's Pool".
"It is a book that ought to be considered alongside [Izaak Walton's] "The Compleat Angler" as an angler's bible."
The protagonist in "McElligot's Pool" is Marco, who appeared 10 years earlier in Seuss's first book, "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street", itself one of the Forbidden Six. Instead of a fetid, trash-laden bog, Marco sees a strand in a locally and globally interconnected web of aquifers that lead to the ocean and its vast and endless possibilities.
That makes for a really cute and quaint children's book, yes? Keep in mind that in 1947, our eastern rivers were terribly polluted, as evidenced by a memorable 1970 Keep America Beautiful ad that also had insensitive imagery and an insensitive label. Look it up if you're interested. The once rich fisheries of the Great Lakes were teetering on extinction. In 1969, the chemical-laden Cuyahoga River caught fire at Cleveland, with flames reaching as high as five stories, resulting in the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. The oceans were increasingly polluted and already showing severe evidence of overfishing.
In 1947, with pollution an accepted element of American society, Marco dreams of catching big fish that have not yet been discovered despite discouragement from the pond's owner, who considers Marco foolish for envisioning anything positive in a mire of boots, bottles, cans and other waste.
Dobrin, a professor of English at the University of Florida, wrote: "We should adopt Marco as the patron saint of the optimistic angler and tattoo his image alongside our other icons, totems and logos. On bad days of fishing, we should ask ourselves, 'What would Marco do?' "
Another Dr. Seuss book, "The Lorax", is a cornerstone of environmental activism, but it was published in 1971, about the same time as Aldo Leopold's "Sand County Almanac", the latter being the foundation for the American conservation movement.
"McElligot's Pool" was way ahead of its time. It was a commentary on biodiversity, sustainability, pollution, property rights, marine ecology and socio-environmental relationships at a time when none of those ideas was remotely a part of the American ethos. It came at the dawn of the Baby Boom, when ponds and bogs were filled in to build subdivisions, and when rivers were dammed to provide electricity, obliterating native fisheries and ecosystems. This attitude continued unabated into the 1970s, when the public demanded that the reservoirs that replaced the rivers be managed for recreation, particularly fishing. It continues still today within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Ironically, the woke rebuke of "McElligot's Pool"reflects the book's duality. Some, like the cynical old pond owner, dismiss the pool for its superficial ugliness. Others see deeper, past the superficial ugliness into the web of life, relativity and the power of dreams that inspire all humanity.
In this regard, "McElligot's Pool" was woke long before woke was a thing.
A skeptic might suspect that Seuss Enterprises is merely discontinuing six titles that don't sell anymore. Done quietly, nobody would notice. Or the company could turn it into a social statement that promotes brand awareness and perhaps spark new interest in Dr. Seuss books.
Turkey seminar
Join us via Zoom on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. as we discuss turkey hunting in Arkansas. We will talk about turkey hunting strategies, best areas for turkey hunting, turkey calls and my new turkey hunting novel, "St. Tom's Cathedral." To register, visit arkansasonline.com/all-access, or call (501) 378-3847.