The German-American author and illustrator Theodor Seuss "Ted" Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 2, 1904. He is best known for authoring more than 60 children's books under the pen name Dr. Seuss.
Geisel’s family belonged to Springfield’s prosperous German community in Springfield, which became the object of suspicion when World War I broke out.
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| Ted Geisel holding the Cat in the Hat at Desk in 1957 |
EARLY LIFE AND CAREER
Ted Geisel attended New Hampshire’s historic Ivy League university, Dartmouth, in 1925. At Dartmouth, Geisel was caught drinking gin with nine friends in his room (this was the era when the possession and consumption of alcohol was illegal under Prohibition laws). The college banned him from writing for their humor magazine The Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern. To continue work on the Jack-O-Lantern without the administration's knowledge, Geisel adopted the pen name "Seuss."
Geisel was not a doctor. He later added the “Dr.” to his "Seuss" pen name because his father had wanted him to become a professor.
Dr Seuss’ should be pronounced ‘Dr Zoice’ (rhymes 'voice').
Upon graduating from Dartmouth, Geisel entered Lincoln College, Oxford intending to earn a PhD in English literature. He left Oxford University without earning a degree and returned to the United States in February 1927 to begin his career as an illustrator and cartoonist for magazines and newspapers.
Geisel's first nationally published cartoon appeared in the July 16, 1927 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. This single $25 sale encouraged him to move from Springfield to New York City.
Geisel also worked as an illustrator for advertising campaigns, most notably for General Electric, NBC and Standard Oil, and as a political cartoonist for the New York newspaper PM.
Dr. Seuss drew anti-Japanese cartoons during World War II. When he met the survivors of Hiroshima, he realized "A person is a person no matter how small". He later created Horton Hears a Who! as an apology, dedicating it to a Japanese friend.
During the 1930s, Geisel used parts of deceased zoo animals shipped from his father to create fake taxidermy mounts of the creatures he would go on to illustrate in his famous children’s books.
Geisel wrote more than 60 books during his lifetime. Though most of them were published as Dr. Seuss, he also wrote 13 books as Theo. LeSieg ("LeSieg" is "Geisel" spelled backward) and one as Rosetta Stone (a pun on the Rosetta Stone).
Dr. Seuss published an adult book in 1939, The Seven Lady Godivas: The True Facts Concerning History's Barest Family. A picture book of the tale of Lady Godiva, it was one of Seuss's few publications written for grown-ups. The book's original 1939 publication by Random House bombed and was eventually remaindered. Its failure caused Seuss to abandon the adult audience and focus on children's books instead.
Dr Seuss published his first children's book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street in 1937. During World War II, he took a brief hiatus from children's literature, but after the war, Seuss focused on writing for kids once again.
Dr Seuss created The Cat In The Hat in response to a debate during the mid-1950s in the United States about literacy in early childhood. The author was challenged by a publisher, William Spaulding, to write a book using the 250 words children use most, to promote literacy. He demanded that it be a story that "first-graders can't put down." Seuss used just 236 words in The Cat In The Hat.
The Cat In The Hat was published on March 12, 1957 and became Dr. Seuss's all-time biggest seller.
Inspired by the success of The Cat in The Hat, Seuss began the Beginner Books series written in his new simplified-vocabulary manner that continues to the present day, with entertaining, elementary-level stories by Seuss and other authors.
Green Eggs and Ham is one of Seuss's "Beginner Books." It was the result of a bet between Seuss and Bennett Cerf, Dr. Seuss's publisher, who challenged him to write a story using no more than 50 different words. Seuss won the bet and Green Eggs and Ham was published on August 12, 1960.
The 50 words in Green Eggs and Ham are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a children's story written by Dr. Seuss in rhymed verse. It first appeared in shortened form as a 32-line illustrated poem called "The Hoobub and the Grinch," published in the May 1955 edition of Redbook magazine.
The story was expanded and published in 1957 as a book by Random House, which debuted in December 1957.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas was made into an animated television special and shown for the first time on CBS on December 18, 1966. The narrator was the well-known Horror movie star Boris Karloff.
Dr. Seuss wrote all the lyrics to the songs featured in the 1966 animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Geisel was not a doctor. He later added the “Dr.” to his "Seuss" pen name because his father had wanted him to become a professor.
Dr Seuss’ should be pronounced ‘Dr Zoice’ (rhymes 'voice').
Upon graduating from Dartmouth, Geisel entered Lincoln College, Oxford intending to earn a PhD in English literature. He left Oxford University without earning a degree and returned to the United States in February 1927 to begin his career as an illustrator and cartoonist for magazines and newspapers.
Geisel's first nationally published cartoon appeared in the July 16, 1927 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. This single $25 sale encouraged him to move from Springfield to New York City.
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| Dr. Seuss 1942 cartoon with the caption 'Waiting for the Signal from Home' |
Geisel also worked as an illustrator for advertising campaigns, most notably for General Electric, NBC and Standard Oil, and as a political cartoonist for the New York newspaper PM.
Dr. Seuss drew anti-Japanese cartoons during World War II. When he met the survivors of Hiroshima, he realized "A person is a person no matter how small". He later created Horton Hears a Who! as an apology, dedicating it to a Japanese friend.
During the 1930s, Geisel used parts of deceased zoo animals shipped from his father to create fake taxidermy mounts of the creatures he would go on to illustrate in his famous children’s books.
Geisel wrote more than 60 books during his lifetime. Though most of them were published as Dr. Seuss, he also wrote 13 books as Theo. LeSieg ("LeSieg" is "Geisel" spelled backward) and one as Rosetta Stone (a pun on the Rosetta Stone).
Dr. Seuss published an adult book in 1939, The Seven Lady Godivas: The True Facts Concerning History's Barest Family. A picture book of the tale of Lady Godiva, it was one of Seuss's few publications written for grown-ups. The book's original 1939 publication by Random House bombed and was eventually remaindered. Its failure caused Seuss to abandon the adult audience and focus on children's books instead.
CHILDREN'S BOOKS
Dr Seuss published his first children's book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street in 1937. During World War II, he took a brief hiatus from children's literature, but after the war, Seuss focused on writing for kids once again.
Dr Seuss created The Cat In The Hat in response to a debate during the mid-1950s in the United States about literacy in early childhood. The author was challenged by a publisher, William Spaulding, to write a book using the 250 words children use most, to promote literacy. He demanded that it be a story that "first-graders can't put down." Seuss used just 236 words in The Cat In The Hat.
The Cat In The Hat was published on March 12, 1957 and became Dr. Seuss's all-time biggest seller.
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| Wikipedia |
Inspired by the success of The Cat in The Hat, Seuss began the Beginner Books series written in his new simplified-vocabulary manner that continues to the present day, with entertaining, elementary-level stories by Seuss and other authors.
Green Eggs and Ham is one of Seuss's "Beginner Books." It was the result of a bet between Seuss and Bennett Cerf, Dr. Seuss's publisher, who challenged him to write a story using no more than 50 different words. Seuss won the bet and Green Eggs and Ham was published on August 12, 1960.
The 50 words in Green Eggs and Ham are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a children's story written by Dr. Seuss in rhymed verse. It first appeared in shortened form as a 32-line illustrated poem called "The Hoobub and the Grinch," published in the May 1955 edition of Redbook magazine.
The story was expanded and published in 1957 as a book by Random House, which debuted in December 1957.
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| Dr. Seuss working on How the Grinch Stole Christmas! in early 1957. |
How the Grinch Stole Christmas was made into an animated television special and shown for the first time on CBS on December 18, 1966. The narrator was the well-known Horror movie star Boris Karloff.
Dr. Seuss wrote all the lyrics to the songs featured in the 1966 animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
The Grinch is green because Chuck Jones (the director of the TV special) rented a car that he thought was a very ugly shade of green. The Grinch is black and white in the original book.
The 2003 film adaptation of The Cat in the Hat was so poorly received that Seuss’ widow forbade any further live-action adaptations of her late husband’s work.
Dr. Seuss was once confronted by a feminist who claimed there were no strong female roles in his books. He remarked that most of his characters are animals, and if she could identify their gender, he would remember her in his will.
Dr. Seuss first began to collect hats as he was going about his travels in the 1920s and 1930s. He stored them in a secret closet at his home, which were filled with hundreds of fezs, somberos and helmets etc.
When Dr Seuss was penning his Beginner Books for Random House in the 1960s, he’d have his editor in chief, Michael Frith come over to help him. If Dr Seuss got stuck with his writing, he and his editor would go to the closet filled with hundreds of hats and wear them till the words came.
Geisel first met Helen Palmer, an American children's author, editor, and philanthropist in a class at Oxford. They got married in America on November 29, 1927.
Helen had a long struggle with illnesses, including cancer. Geisel cheated on his wife with Audrey Stone Dimond while she was sick. Helen found out about the affair and committed suicide on October 23, 1967, with an overdose of barbiturates.
Geisel married his mistress Audrey Stone Dimond on June 21, 1968.
Despite being an internationally renowned children's author, Dr. Seuss never had children of his own because he was terrified of them. He said of them: "You have 'em; I'll entertain 'em."
Geisel invented a whole clan of fictional offspring with bizarre talents that he could bring up whenever friends annoyed him by boasting about their own children's' accomplishments. He even got a group of neighborhood kids into posing as them for a fake Christmas card photo.
Geisel died of oral cancer on September 24, 1991 at his home in La Jolla, California at the age of 87.
He was cremated and his ashes were scattered.
National Read Across America Day is an observance in the United States held on the school day closest to March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss. It is part of an initiative on reading created by the National Education Association that began in 1997.
One in four American children receive a work written by Dr. Seuss as their first book.
The 2003 film adaptation of The Cat in the Hat was so poorly received that Seuss’ widow forbade any further live-action adaptations of her late husband’s work.
Dr. Seuss was once confronted by a feminist who claimed there were no strong female roles in his books. He remarked that most of his characters are animals, and if she could identify their gender, he would remember her in his will.
PERSONAL LIFE
Dr. Seuss first began to collect hats as he was going about his travels in the 1920s and 1930s. He stored them in a secret closet at his home, which were filled with hundreds of fezs, somberos and helmets etc.
When Dr Seuss was penning his Beginner Books for Random House in the 1960s, he’d have his editor in chief, Michael Frith come over to help him. If Dr Seuss got stuck with his writing, he and his editor would go to the closet filled with hundreds of hats and wear them till the words came.
Geisel first met Helen Palmer, an American children's author, editor, and philanthropist in a class at Oxford. They got married in America on November 29, 1927.
Helen had a long struggle with illnesses, including cancer. Geisel cheated on his wife with Audrey Stone Dimond while she was sick. Helen found out about the affair and committed suicide on October 23, 1967, with an overdose of barbiturates.
Geisel married his mistress Audrey Stone Dimond on June 21, 1968.
Despite being an internationally renowned children's author, Dr. Seuss never had children of his own because he was terrified of them. He said of them: "You have 'em; I'll entertain 'em."
Geisel invented a whole clan of fictional offspring with bizarre talents that he could bring up whenever friends annoyed him by boasting about their own children's' accomplishments. He even got a group of neighborhood kids into posing as them for a fake Christmas card photo.
DEATH AND LEGACY
Geisel died of oral cancer on September 24, 1991 at his home in La Jolla, California at the age of 87.
He was cremated and his ashes were scattered.
National Read Across America Day is an observance in the United States held on the school day closest to March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss. It is part of an initiative on reading created by the National Education Association that began in 1997.
One in four American children receive a work written by Dr. Seuss as their first book.
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