The Seuss books are a mainstay of any lower school library. His humor and nonsensical text and illustrations hold tremendous appeal for the boys in my school. In the spirit of celebrating his birth, here are a few fun facts about him.
Ted Geisel's Dartmouth college buddies voted him the "least likely to succeed."
The Cat in the Hat was created specifically as a book for beginning readers. Ted Geisel was given a word list of 223 easy to read words and was told to get to work. It took nine months to finish the book. Lucky for us the first two words on the list were cat and hat!
Dr. Seuss' 1st children's book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, was published in 1937. It was written on a ship while returning from a trip to Europe. He was fascinated with the cadence of the engine and wrote the book in rhyme to accompany the tempo of the engine.
During World War II, Ted Geisel worked with Frank Capra (director of "It's a Wonderful Life") and made instructional films for the soldiers. Two of these films won Academy Awards.
Dr. Seuss began the Beginner Book imprint at Random House. (These are easy to read books. They bear the Beginner Book seal with the Cat from the Cat in the Hat on the cover. Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham are examples of Seuss Beginner Books. Go Dog Go and Are You My Mother? are examples by other authors.) Whenever Ted Geisel wrote the story, but didn't do the illustrations he signed the book Theo. Lesieg--Geisel spelled backwards!
Dr. Seuss never thought much about his artistic ability. He once said, "My animals look the way they do cause I can't draw." He referred to his style as "exaggerated mistakes".
In 2010 Dr. Seuss was 7th on Forbes list of the top earning dead celebrities. His estate earned $11 million. This income came from book sales, "Seussical" the musical, Seuss Landing (the Seuss amusement park in Orlando--a part of Universal), movies, and Seuss related clothing and toys. (For those who are interested, dead celebrities 1-6 are: Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, JRR Tolkien, Charles Schulz, John Lennon, and Steig Larsson.)
Seuss is actually Ted Geisel's mother's maiden name. He went to college during prohibition years and was the editor of the Dartmouth College newspaper, The Jack-O-Lantern. One night he and some buddies were caught with a pint of gin in a dorm room. He was pulled as the editor of the paper. He continued to submit illustrations using the name of Seuss. The Dr. came years later when he was drawing cartoons for Judge magazine. He added the Dr. because he thought it made him sound more professional.
Dr. Seuss wrote the screenplay for the animated cartoon "Gerald McBoing Boing". It's the story of a boy who can only speak in weird sounds. He declined doing the illustrations saying he didn't think he could draw well enough. The movie won an Academy Award in 1951--Dr. Seuss' third Oscar.
Ted Geisel wrote Green Eggs and Ham after being challenged by his editor, Bennett Cerf. He bet Dr. Seuss $50 that he couldn't write a book using only 50 simple words. Of course, Dr. Seuss rose to the challenge and produced one of his most famous books. He claimed he never did collect the $50 from Bennett Cerf. He also lamented the fact that green eggs and ham were on the menu at almost every banquet he attended thereafter.
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born March 2, 1904. He died of throat cancer on September 21, 1991. He was 87 years old when he died. He had written and illustrated 48 books, which sold over 200 million copies. He won a Pulitzer in 1984. The Grinch was his favorite character and The Lorax was his favorite book.
