How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a Christmas children's story by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel written in rhymed verse with illustrations by the author. It follows the Grinch, a grouchy, solitary creature who tries to cancel Christmas by stealing Christmas gifts and decorations from the homes of the nearby town of Whoville on Christmas Eve. Miraculously, the Grinch realizes that Christmas is not all about money and presents.

The story was published as a book by Random House in 1957, and at approximately the same time in an issue of Redbook. The book criticizes the commercialization of Christmas and the holiday season.

The book has been adapted many times, first as a 1966 animated TV film narrated by Boris Karloff, who also provided the Grinch's voice. In 1977, a Halloween prequel, Halloween Is Grinch Night, aired with the Grinch voiced by Hans Conried. These were followed with a 2000 live-action feature film starring Jim Carrey, a 2007 musical, a 2018 computer-animated film starring Benedict Cumberbatch, and a 2020 live television adaptation of the musical starring Matthew Morrison.

Plot

The Grinch is a bitter, grouchy creature with a heart "two sizes too small" who lives in a cave on Mount Crumpit, a steep mountain just north of Whoville, home of the cheerful and warmhearted Whos. He is annoyed by all the noisy Christmas festivities that take place in Whoville, and decides to stop Christmas from coming. He disguises himself as Santa Claus and travels to Whoville on a sleigh with his dog Max. He slides down the chimney of the first house on the square and steals all the presents, the Christmas tree, and the food for the Christmas feast. He is interrupted in his burglary by Cindy Lou Who, a young Who girl, but concocts a crafty lie to effect his escape.

After doing the same to the other houses, the Grinch takes his sleigh to the top of Mount Crumpit and prepares to dump the stolen items into the abyss. As dawn breaks, he expects to hear the Whos crying, but is shocked to hear them singing a joyous Christmas song. He realizes perhaps Christmas "means a little bit more" than just presents and feasting, causing his shrunken heart to grow three sizes larger. The reformed Grinch returns the Whos' presents and food and is allowed to take part in their Christmas feast.

Background and publication history

The Grinch first appeared in a 33-line illustrated poem by Dr. Seuss called "The Hoobub and the Grinch," which was originally published in the May 1955 edition of Redbook magazine. Dr. Seuss began work on How the Grinch Stole Christmas! a couple of years later, around the beginning of 1957. He had recently completed The Cat in the Hat and was in the midst of founding Beginner Books with Phyllis and Bennett Cerf and his wife, Helen Palmer Geisel. Helen, who had ongoing medical problems and had suffered a small stroke in April 1957, nevertheless acted as an unofficial editor, as she had with previous Dr. Seuss books.

Dr. Seuss claimed he was the inspiration for the character, as his wife's health problems and his dismay with the commercialization of Christmas made him feel "very Grinchish" as he looked in the mirror one year on December 26.

Dr. Seuss wrote the book quickly and was mostly finished with it within a few weeks. Biographers Judith and Neil Morgan wrote, "It was the easiest book of his career to write, except for its conclusion. According to Dr. Seuss:

I got hung up getting the Grinch out of the mess. I got into a situation where I sounded like a second-rate preacher or some biblical truism... Finally in desperation... without making any statement whatever, I showed the Grinch and the Whos together at the table, and made a pun of the Grinch carving the 'roast beast.' ... I had gone through thousands of religious choices, and then after three months it came out like that.

By mid-May 1957, the book was finished and in the mail to the Random House offices in New York. In June, Dr. Seuss and Helen took a month-long vacation to Hawaii, where he checked and returned the book's galley proof. The book debuted in December 1957, in both a book version published by Random House and in an issue of Redbook. Dr. Seuss dedicated the book to Theodor "Teddy" Owens, the one-year-old son of his niece, Peggy Owens.

As of 2005, the book had been translated into nine languages, including Latin as Quomodo Invidiosulus Nomine Grinchus Christi Natalem Abrogaverit. The translation was published in October 1998 by Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers Inc.

Analysis

Some writers, including Dr. Seuss, have made a connection between the Grinch and Dr. Seuss. In the story, the Grinch laments that he has had to put up with the Whos' celebration of Christmas for 53 years. As both Thomas Fensch and Charles Cohen note, Dr. Seuss was 53 when he wrote and published the book. Dr. Seuss asserted the connection in an article in the December 1957 edition of Redbook: "I was brushing my teeth on the morning of the 26th of last December when I noticed a very Grinch-ish countenance in the mirror. It was Seuss! So I wrote about my sour friend, the Grinch, to see if I could rediscover something about Christmas that obviously I'd lost." Seuss's step-daughter, Lark Dimond-Cates, stated in a speech in 2003, "I always thought the Cat... was Ted on his good days, and the Grinch was Ted on his bad days." Cohen notes that Seuss drove a car with a license plate that read "GRINCH".

Thomas Fensch notes that the Grinch is the first adult and the first villain to be a main character in a Dr. Seuss book.

Adaptations

The book has been adapted into a variety of media, including stage and film. Chuck Jones and Ben Washam adapted the story as an animated television special in 1966, featuring narration by Boris Karloff, who also provided the Grinch's voice. Thurl Ravenscroft sang "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch", with lyrics written by Dr. Seuss himself. A prequel called Halloween Is Grinch Night aired on ABC on October 28, 1977. Hans Conried was the voice of the Grinch and the Narrator because Boris Karloff had died in 1969. A crossover special called The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat aired on ABC on May 20, 1982. In 2000, the book was adapted into a live-action film, directed by Ron Howard and starring Jim Carrey as the Grinch. Illumination Entertainment also developed a 3D animated feature film, titled The Grinch directed by Yarrow Cheney and Scott Mosier and starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the Grinch. It was originally scheduled to be released on November 10, 2017, but was pushed back to November 9, 2018.

Legacy

Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association listed the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children". In 2012 it was ranked 61st among the "Top 100 Picture Books" in a survey published by School Library Journal – the fourth of five Dr. Seuss books on the list.

The book's main characters have made appearances in other works. The Grinch appears in the animated specials Halloween Is Grinch Night and The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat. Max, the Grinch's dog, and the Grinch himself also appear in the children's puppet show The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss. The Grinch, Cindy Lou Who, and Max, appear in Seussical, a musical which takes its plot from several Dr. Seuss books.

Since the book was written, the word "grinch" has entered the popular lexicon as an informal noun, defined as a "killjoy" or a "spoilsport."

(Wikipedia)