Dr. Seuss was
born Theodore Geisel in 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He
graduated from Dartmouth College in 1925. He then went to
Oxford University with the plan of acquiring a doctorate in literature.
At Oxford he met Helen Palmer. He married Helen in 1927. He
returned from Europe in 1927 and began working for a magazine called
Judge . The Judge was the leading humor magazine in America at
the time. He created both cartoons and humorous articles for
them. Additionally, he was submitting cartoons to Life , Vanity Fair
and Liberty . In some of his works, he made comments about an
insecticide called Flit. These comments led to a contract to draw comic
ads for Flit, an insecticide produced by Standard Oil. He wrote
his first book,
To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street, under the pen name of Dr.
Seuss. Seuss was his middle name and he put Dr. in front of it
because his father had always wanted him to be a doctor.
Forty-three publishers rejected the book, but it was finally
published in 1937 by a friend. It was
soon followed by books such as The King's Stilts (1939) and Horton
Hatches
the Egg (1940).
During World War II (1939-1945),
Geisel joined the army and was sent to Hollywood. He wrote films for
the war effort. Captain Geisel wrote for Frank Capra's Signal
Corps Unit (for which he
won the Legion of Merit) and created documentaries (he won Oscar's for
Hitler Lives and Design for Death).
Geisel returned to writing children's books with
McElligott's Pond (1947). and for the next several decades he produced
about 40 books in all, including such favorites as Horton Hears a
Who (1954), How
the Grinch Stole Christmas (1957), The Cat in the Hat (1957), Green
Eggs
and Ham (1960), The Lorax (1971), and The Butter Battle (1984). He was
also
the creator of the animated cartoon character Gerald McBoing Boing, for
which he won an Academy Award in 1951. He received a special Pulitzer
Prize citation in 1984 for his lifetime contribution to the education
and enjoyment of
America's children and their parents. His last books—You're Only Old
Once
(1986) and Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990)—were written for adult
audiences
and were also best-sellers. The children's book Daisy-Head Maysie was
published
after his death in 1995 based upon sketches and text he had created for
an animated television special.
He began his Cat in the Hat series
when he read an article that said early readers used in schools were
"pallid
and idiotic". The article explained that these books were like
this
because they could only use the Dolch reading list. Seuss took
220
Dolch words and created The Cat in the Hat, a fun book to read.
This
book was an instant success. He and his wife, Helen Palmer, began a
whole
line of Beginner Books some of which he wrote and illustrated.
Sometimes
he wrote under the name of Theo LeSieg (Geisel spelled backwards) and
let
others illustrate his books. Other times they were done by other
authors
and illustrators, but all of the books used approved educational
word
lists and revolutionized children's beginning reading books. In 1960
Bennett
Cerf bet Geisel $50 that he couldn't write an entire book using only
fifty
words. As a result Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham. Bennett
Cerf
never paid Dr. Seuss the $50.
Helen Palmer Geisel died in
1967. In 1968 Theodor Geisel married Audrey Stone Diamond.
Theodor Seuss Geisel died September 24, 1991 in California. Even
after his death, Dr.
Seuss continues to be the best-selling author of children's books in
the
world.
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