‘CAT IN HAT’ GETS TIP OF HAT

Theodor Seuss Geisel, the La Jolla resident best known as Dr. Seuss, the celebrated creator of a menagerie of children’s cartoon creatures, will be the subject of a major exhibit May 17 to July 13, the San Diego Museum of Art announced Friday.

“Dr. Seuss, From Then to Now,” an exhibit spanning more than five decades of Geisel’s career, will honor the author and illustrator of 44 books such as “The Cat in the Hat,” “Yertle the Turtle” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Museum director Steven L. Brezzo called the show “the most complete and comprehensive” museum retrospective of Geisel’s career.

Although negotiations with other museums are still under way, Brezzo said that after closing in San Diego, the show might travel to Baltimore, New Orleans and New York City.

The exhibit will include more than 300 drawings, ranging from Geisel’s early career in advertising, to illustrations of his children’s books, to a section on the development of an upcoming adult book in children’s format, “You’re Only Old Once” (Random House), that will be published in March.

Geisel has won three Oscars and two Emmys and in 1984 received a Pulitzer Prize for “the body of his work over almost a half-century.”