The stepdaughter of Dr. Seuss is weighing in on the author's legacy following a controversial decision to cease publishing for six of his books labeled "hurtful and wrong."
"No one has ever tried to hide them or dismiss them. They’re out there, and with all my heart, I wish they were not out there," Leagrey Dimond told the San Francisco Chronicle. If she had it her way, Dimond said she’d like future editions of the questionable books to remove illustrations, include introductions explaining why they were removed and use the amended books "as teaching tools."
Appropriately, Dimond is a retired San Francisco bookstore owner.
Telling the paper she "never witnessed any instances of prejudice" by Dr. Seuss, Dimond said of her late stepfather: "It’s important to put him in his time, and in his time, he had regrets."
Dimond and her sister aren’t a part of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, which was established by their mother. The company in charge of the author’s legacy controversially announced earlier this month that six Dr. Seuss books would be pulled from further publishing and licensing because of racist imagery.
The books contained blatantly racist depictions of Black, Indigenous and Asian peoples.
Following the announcement, many of Dr. Seuss' classic works promptly shot to the top of best seller lists worldwide.
According to the paper, Dimond and her sister are Audrey Geisel’s children from a previous marriage. She later married Theodor Geisel, also known as Dr. Seuss, when Leagrey was nine.
Dimond added that she doesn’t receive royalties from book sales.
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