The Grinch, as most people know him from How the Grinch Stole Christmas! , was written and published in 1957.

Quick answer

  • The book How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was written in early 1957 and finished by around May of that year.
  • It was first published in December 1957, both as a book (by Random House) and in Redbook magazine.

A bit of background

  • The character actually appeared earlier, in a short illustrated poem called “The Hoobub and the Grinch” , published in Redbook in May 1955.
  • A couple of years later, Dr. Seuss developed that idea into the full story How the Grinch Stole Christmas! that became the classic known today.

Why 1957 matters

  • In a later recollection, Dr. Seuss noted he was 53 years old when he wrote the book, which matches the 1957 publication date and the Grinch’s line “for fifty-three years I’ve put up with it now.”
  • The story came out just after The Cat in the Hat , and it quickly became one of the defining mid‑century Christmas books, helping cement the Grinch as a modern holiday icon.

TL;DR: The Grinch as a full book was written in early 1957 and first published in December 1957, though the character appeared in a shorter poem in 1955.

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