Dr . Seuss Theodor Seuss Geisel ( ; March 2 , 1904 – September 24 , 1991 ) was an American writer , poet , and cartoonist . He was most widely known for his children ' s book s written and illustrated as Dr . Seuss . He had used the pen name Dr . Theophrastus Seuss in college and later used Theo LeSieg and Rosetta Stone . Geisel published 46 children ' s books , often characterized by imaginative characters , rhyme , and frequent use of anapest ic meter . His most - celebrated books include the bestselling " Green Eggs and Ham " , " The Cat in the Hat " , " The Lorax , " " One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish " , " Horton Hatches the Egg " , " Horton Hears a Who ! " , and " How the Grinch Stole Christmas ! " . His works have spawned numerous adaptations , including 11 television specials , four feature films , a Broadway musical and four television series . He won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958 for " Horton Hatches the Egg " and again in 1961 for " And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street " . Geisel also worked as an illustrator for advertising campaign s , most notably for Flit and Standard Oil , and as a political cartoon ist for " PM " , a New York City newspaper . During World War II , he worked in an animation department of the United States Army , where he wrote " Design for Death " , a film that later won the 1947 Academy Award for Documentary Feature . He was a perfectionist in his work and would sometimes spend up to a year on a book . It was not uncommon for him to throw out 95 % of his material until he settled on a theme for his book . For a writer he was unusual in that he preferred to be paid only after he finished his work rather than in advance . Geisel ' s birthday , March 2 , has been adopted as the annual date for National Read Across America Day , an initiative on reading created by the National Education Association . Life and career . Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield , Massachusetts , to Theodor Robert and Henrietta ( Seuss ) Geisel . All of his grandparents were German immigrants . His father managed the family brewery and later supervised Springfield ' s public park system after the brewery closed because of Prohibition . Mulberry Street in Springfield , made famous in Dr . Seuss ' first children ' s book " And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street ! " , is less than a mile southwest of his boyhood home on Fairfield Street . Geisel was raised a Lutheran . Geisel enrolled at Springfield Central High School in 1917 and graduated in 1921 . He took an art class as a freshman and later became manager of the school soccer team . College . Geisel attended Dartmouth College , graduating in 1925 . At Dartmouth , he joined the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and the humor magazine " Dartmouth Jack - O - Lantern , " eventually rising to the rank of editor - in - chief . While at Dartmouth , Geisel was caught drinking gin with nine friends in his room . As a result , Dean Craven Laycock insisted that he resign from all extracurricular activities , including the college humor magazine . To continue work on the " Jack - O - Lantern " without the administration ' s knowledge , Geisel began signing his work with the pen name " Seuss " . His first work signed as " Dr . Seuss " appeared after he graduated , six months into his work for " The Judge " , where his weekly feature " Birdsies and Beasties " appeared . Geisel was encouraged in his writing by professor of rhetoric W . Benfield Pressey , whom he described as his " big inspiration for writing " at Dartmouth . Upon graduating from Dartmouth , he entered Lincoln College , Oxford , intending to earn a PhD in English literature . At Oxford , he met Helen Palmer , who encouraged him to give up becoming an English teacher in favor of pursuing drawing as a career . He returned to the United States without earning a degree and later married Helen , in 1927 . Earliest post - college publications . He began submitting humorous articles and illustrations to " Judge , " " Life , " " Vanity Fair , " and " Liberty . " One notable " Technocracy Number " made fun of the technocracy movement and featured satirical rhymes at the expense of Frederick Soddy . The July 16 , 1927 , issue of the " The Saturday Evening Post " published his first cartoon under the name Seuss . He became nationally famous from his advertisements for Flit , a common insecticide at the time . His slogan , " Quick , Henry , the Flit ! " became a popular catchphrase . Geisel supported himself and his wife through the Great Depression by drawing advertising for General Electric , NBC , Standard Oil , Narragansett Brewing Company and many other companies . In 1935 , he wrote and drew a short - lived comic strip called " Hejji . " In 1937 , while Geisel was returning from an ocean voyage to Europe , the rhythm of the ship ' s engines inspired the poem that became his first book , " And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street " . It was rejected 27 times ( numbers will vary ) . Geisel wrote four more children ' s books before the US entered World War II . This included " The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins " in 1938 as well as " The King ' s Stilts " and " The Seven Lady Godivas " in 1939 , all of which were , atypically for him , in prose . This was followed by " Horton Hatches the Egg " in 1940 , in which Geisel returned to the use of poetry . Essomarine . Geisel gained a significant public profile through a program for motor boat lubricants produced by Standard Oil under the brand name Essomarine . He later recounted that Harry Bruno , Ted Cook , and Verne Carrier worked with him for exhibits at the National Motor Boat Show called the Seuss Navy . In 1934 Geisel produced a 30 - page booklet entitled " Secrets of the Deep " , which was available by mail after June . At the January boat show for 1935 , visitors filled out order cards to receive " Secrets " . Geisel drew up a Certificate of Commission for visitors in 1936 . A mock ship deck called " SS Essomarine " provided the scene where photos of " Admirals " were taken . That summer Geisel released a second volume of " Secrets " . For the 1937 show , he sculpted Marine Muggs and designed a flag for the Seuss Navy . The following year featured " Little Dramas of the Deep " , a six - act play with ten characters . According to Geisel ' s sister , " He plans the whole show with scenery and action and then , standing in a realistic bridge , reels off a speech which combines advertising with humor . " For 1939 , exhibitors made available the Nuzzlepuss ashtray and illustrated tide - table calendars . On January 11 , 1940 , at the Waldorf - Astoria Hotel , a Seuss Navy Luncheon was held . At that year ' s boat show , Geisel provided the Navigamarama exhibit and the " Sea Lawyers Gazette " . The final contribution to the Essomarine project , in 1941 , was the mermaid Essie Neptune and her pet whale . The exhibit offered photos for a Happy Cruising passport . World War II - era work . As World War II began , Geisel turned to political cartoons , drawing over 400 in two years as editorial cartoonist for the left - leaning New York City daily newspaper , " PM . " Geisel ' s political cartoons , later published in " Dr . Seuss Goes to War " , denounced Hitler and Mussolini and were highly critical of non - interventionists ( " isolationists " ) , most notably Charles Lindbergh , who opposed US entry into the war . One cartoon depicted all Japanese Americans as latent traitors or fifth - columnists , while at the same time other cartoons deplored the racism at home against Jews and blacks that harmed the war effort . His cartoons were strongly supportive of President Roosevelt ' s handling of the war , combining the usual exhortations to ration and contribute to the war effort with frequent attacks on Congress ( especially the Republican Party ) , parts of the press ( such as the " New York Daily News " , " Chicago Tribune " and " Washington Times - Herald " ) , and others for criticism of Roosevelt , criticism of aid to the Soviet Union , investigation of suspected Communists , and other offences that he depicted as leading to disunity and helping the Nazis , intentionally or inadvertently . In 1942 , Geisel turned his energies to direct support of the U . S . war effort . First , he worked drawing posters for the Treasury Department and the War Production Board . Then , in 1943 , he joined the Army as a Captain and was commander of the Animation Department of the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Forces , where he wrote films that included " Your Job in Germany , " a 1945 propaganda film about peace in Europe after World War II ; " Our Job in Japan , " and the " Private Snafu " series of adult army training films . While in the Army , he was awarded the Legion of Merit . " Our Job in Japan " became the basis for the commercially released film , " Design for Death " ( 1947 ) , a study of Japanese culture that won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature . " Gerald McBoing - Boing " ( 1950 ) , which was based on an original story by Seuss , won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film . Later years . After the war , Geisel and his wife moved to La Jolla , California . Returning to children ' s books , he wrote many works , including such favorites as " If I Ran the Zoo " , ( 1950 ) , " Horton Hears a Who ! " ( 1955 ) , " If I Ran the Circus " ( 1956 ) , " The Cat in the Hat " ( 1957 ) , " How the Grinch Stole Christmas " ( 1957 ) and " Green Eggs and Ham " ( 1960 ) . Although he received numerous awards throughout his career , Geisel won neither the Caldecott Medal nor the Newbery Medal . Three of his titles from this period were , however , chosen as Caldecott runners - up ( now referred to as Caldecott Honor books ) : " McElligot ' s Pool " ( 1947 ) , " Bartholomew and the Oobleck " ( 1949 ) , and " If I Ran the Zoo " ( 1950 ) . Dr Seuss also wrote the musical and fantasy film " The 5 , 000 Fingers of Dr . T , " which was released in 1953 . The movie was a critical and financial failure , and Geisel never attempted another feature film . During the 1950s , he also published a number of illustrated short stories , mostly in " Redbook " Magazine . Some of these were later collected ( in volumes such as " The Sneetches and Other Stories " or reworked into independent books ( " If I Ran the Zoo " ) . A number have never been reprinted since their original appearances . In May 1954 , " Life " magazine published a report on illiteracy among school children , which concluded that children were not learning to read because their books were boring . Accordingly , William Ellsworth Spaulding , the director of the education division at Houghton Mifflin who later became its chairman , compiled a list of 348 words he felt were important for first - graders to recognize and asked Geisel to cut the list to 250 words and write a book using only those words . Spaulding challenged Geisel to " bring back a book children can ' t put down . " Nine months later , Geisel , using 236 of the words given to him , completed " The Cat in the Hat . " It retained the drawing style , verse rhythms , and all the imaginative power of Geisel ' s earlier works , but because of its simplified vocabulary , it could be read by beginning readers . " The Cat in the Hat " and subsequent books written for young children achieved significant international success and they remain very popular today . In 2009 " Green Eggs and Ham " sold 540 , 366 copies , " The Cat in the Hat " sold 452 , 258 copies , and " One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish " ( 1960 ) sold 409 , 068 copies — outselling the majority of newly published children ' s books . Geisel went on to write many other children ' s books , both in his new simplified - vocabulary manner ( sold as Beginner Books ) and in his older , more elaborate style . On October 23 , 1967 , suffering from a long struggle with illnesses including cancer — as well as emotional pain over her husband ' s affair with Audrey Stone Dimond — Geisel ' s wife , Helen Palmer Geisel , committed suicide . Geisel married Dimond on June 21 , 1968 . Though he devoted most of his life to writing children ' s books , Geisel had no children of his own . He would say , when asked about this , " You have ' em ; I ' ll entertain ' em . " Geisel received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal from the professional children ' s librarians in 1980 , recognizing his " substantial and lasting contributions to children ' s literature " . At the time it was awarded every five years . Illness , death and posthumous honors . Geisel died of throat cancer on September 24 , 1991 , at his home in La Jolla at the age of 87 . He was cremated and his ashes were scattered . On December 1 , 1995 , four years after his death , University of California , San Diego ' s University Library Building was renamed Geisel Library in honor of Geisel and Audrey for the generous contributions they made to the library and their devotion to improving literacy . While Geisel was living in La Jolla , the United States Postal Service and others frequently confused him with another La Jolla resident , Dr . Hans Suess . Their names have been linked together posthumously : the personal papers of Hans Suess are housed in the Geisel Library . In 2002 , the Dr . Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden opened in his birthplace of Springfield , Massachusetts ; it features sculptures of Geisel and of many of his characters . On May 28 , 2008 , California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver announced that Geisel would be inducted into the California Hall of Fame , located at The California Museum for History , Women and the Arts . The induction ceremony took place December 15 and his widow Audrey accepted the honor in his place . On March 2 , 2009 , the web search engine Google temporarily changed its logo to commemorate Geisel ' s birthday ( a practice it often follows for various holidays and events ) . In 2004 , U . S . children ' s librarians established the annual Theodor Seuss Geisel Award to recognize " the most distinguished American book for beginning readers published in English in the United States during the preceding year " . It should " demonstrate creativity and imagination to engage children in reading " during years pre - K to grade two . At his alma mater , Dartmouth , where over 90 % of incoming first - year students participate in pre - registration Dartmouth Outing Club trips into the New Hampshire wilderness , it is traditional for students returning from the trips to overnight at Dartmouth ' s Moosilauke Ravine Lodge , where they are served green eggs and ham for breakfast in honor of Dr . Seuss . On April 4 , 2012 , the Dartmouth Medical School renamed itself the Audrey and Theodor Geisel School of Medicine in honor of their many years of generosity to the college . Dr . Seuss ' s honors include two Academy awards , two Emmy awards , a Peabody award , the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal , and the Pulitzer Prize . Dr . Seuss has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame , at the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard . Pen names and pronunciations . Geisel ' s most famous pen name is regularly pronounced , an anglicize d pronunciation inconsistent with his German surname . He himself noted that it rhymed with " voice " ( his own pronunciation being ) and Alexander Liang , one of his collaborators on the " Dartmouth Jack - O - Lantern " , wrote of it : Geisel switched to the anglicized pronunciation because it " evoked a figure advantageous for an author of children ' s books to be associated with — Mother Goose " and because most people used this pronunciation . For books that Geisel wrote and others illustrated , he used the pen name " Theo LeSieg " , starting with " I Wish That I Had Duck Feet " , published in 1965 . " LeSieg " is " Geisel " spelled backward . Geisel also published one book , 1975 ' s " Because a Little Bug Went Ka - Choo ! ! " , a collaboration with Michael K . Frith , under the name Rosetta Stone . Frith and Geisel chose the name in honor of Geisel ' s second wife , Audrey , whose maiden name was Stone . Political views . Geisel was a liberal Democrat and a supporter of President Franklin D . Roosevelt and the New Deal . His early political cartoons show a passionate opposition to fascism , and he urged action against it both before and after the United States entered World War II . His cartoons portrayed the fear of communism as overstated , finding greater threats in the House Un - American Activities Committee and those who threatened to cut the US " life line " to Stalin and the USSR , whom he once depicted as a porter carrying " our war load " . Geisel supported the Japanese American internment during World War II . His treatment of the Japanese and of Japanese Americans , between whom he often failed to differentiate , has struck many readers as a moral blind spot . On the issue of the Japanese , he is quoted as saying : After the war , though , Geisel overcame his feelings of animosity , using his book " Horton Hears a Who ! " ( 1954 ) as an allegory for the Hiroshima bombing and the American post - war occupation of Japan , as well as dedicating the book to a Japanese friend . In 1948 , after living and working in Hollywood for years , Geisel moved to La Jolla , California , a predominantly Republican town . Shortly before the end of the 1972 – 74 Watergate scandal , in which United States president Richard Nixon resigned , Geisel converted a copy of one of his famous children ' s books into a polemic by replacing the name of the main character everywhere it occurred . " Richard M . Nixon , Will You Please Go Now ! " was published in major newspapers through the column of his friend Art Buchwald . The line " A person ' s a person , no matter " how " small ! ! " from " Horton Hears a Who ! " has been used widely as a slogan by the anti - abortion movement in the U . S . , despite the objections of Geisel ' s widow . While Geisel preferred to let his work speak for itself , he did occasionally speak out to protect his characters from exploitation . In 1986 when the line was first used by the pro - life movement , he demanded a retraction and received one . In his books . Though Geisel made a point of not beginning the writing of his stories with a moral in mind , stating that " kids can see a moral coming a mile off , " he was not against writing about issues ; he said that " there ' s an inherent moral in any story , " and he remarked that he was " subversive as hell . " Many of Geisel ' s books express his views on a remarkable variety of social and political issues : " The Lorax " ( 1971 ) , about environmentalism and anti - consumerism ; " The Sneetches " ( 1961 ) , about racial equality ; " The Butter Battle Book " ( 1984 ) , about the arms race ; " Yertle the Turtle " ( 1958 ) , about Hitler and anti - authoritarianism ; " How the Grinch Stole Christmas " ( 1957 ) , criticizing the materialism and consumerism of the Christmas season ; and " Horton Hears a Who ! " ( 1950 ) , about anti - isolationism and internationalism . Poetic meters . Geisel wrote most of his books in anapestic tetrameter , a poetic meter employed by many poets of the English literary canon . This is often suggested as one of the reasons that Geisel ' s writing was so well received . Anapestic tetrameter consists of four rhythmic units , anapest s , each composed of two weak syllables followed by one strong syllable ( the beat ) ; often , the first weak syllable is omitted , or an additional weak syllable is added at the end . An example of this meter can be found in Geisel ' s " Yertle the Turtle " , from " Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories " : Some books by Geisel that are written mainly in anapestic tetrameter also contain many lines written in amphibrachic tetrameter , such as these from " If I Ran the Circus " : Geisel also wrote verse in trochaic tetrameter , an arrangement of a strong syllable followed by a weak syllable , with four units per line ( for example , the title of " One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish " ) . Traditionally , English trochaic meter permits the final weak position in the line to be omitted , which allows both masculine and feminine rhymes . Geisel generally maintained trochaic meter for only brief passages , and for longer stretches typically mixed it with iambic tetrameter , which consists of a weak syllable followed by a strong , and is generally considered easier to write . Thus , for example , the magicians in " Bartholomew and the Oobleck " make their first appearance chanting in trochee s ( thus resembling the witches of Shakespeare ' s " Macbeth " ) : then switch to iamb s for the oobleck spell : Artwork . Geisel ' s earlier artwork often employed the shaded texture of pencil drawings or watercolor s , but in children ' s books of the postwar period , he generally employed the starker medium of pen and ink , normally using just black , white , and one or two colors . Later books such as " The Lorax " used more colors . Geisel ' s figures are often rounded and somewhat droopy . This is true , for instance , of the faces of the Grinch and of the Cat in the Hat . It is also true of virtually all buildings and machinery that Geisel drew ; although these objects abound in straight lines in real life , for buildings , this could be accomplished in part through choice of architecture . For machines , for example , " If I Ran the Circus " includes a droopy hoisting crane and a droopy steam calliope . Geisel evidently enjoyed drawing architecturally elaborate objects . His endlessly varied ( but never rectilinear ) palaces , ramps , platforms , and free - standing stairways are among his most evocative creations . Geisel also drew complex imaginary machines , such as the Audio - Telly - O - Tally - O - Count , from " Dr . Seuss ' s Sleep Book " , or the " most peculiar machine " of Sylvester McMonkey McBean in " The Sneetches " . Geisel also liked drawing outlandish arrangements of feathers or fur , for example , the 500th hat of " Bartholomew Cubbins " , the tail of " Gertrude McFuzz " , and the pet for girls who like to brush and comb , in " One Fish Two Fish " . Geisel ' s images often convey motion vividly . He was fond of a sort of " voilà " gesture , in which the hand flips outward , spreading the fingers slightly backward with the thumb up ; this is done by Ish , for instance , in " One Fish Two Fish " when he creates fish ( who perform the gesture themselves with their fins ) , in the introduction of the various acts of " If I Ran the Circus " , and in the introduction of the Little Cats in " The Cat in the Hat Comes Back " . He was also fond of drawing hands with interlocked fingers , which looked as though the characters were twiddling their thumbs . Geisel also follows the cartoon tradition of showing motion with lines , for instance in the sweeping lines that accompany Sneelock ' s final dive in " If I Ran the Circus " . Cartoonists ' lines are also used to illustrate the action of the senses ( sight , smell , and hearing ) in " The Big Brag " and even of thought , as in the moment when the Grinch conceives his awful idea . Recurring images . Geisel ' s early work in advertising and editorial cartooning produced sketches that received more perfect realization later in the children ' s books . Often , the expressive use to which Geisel put an image later on was quite different from the original . Publications . Over the course of his long career , Geisel wrote over 60 books . Though most were published under his well - known pseudonym , Dr . Seuss , he also authored over a dozen books as Theo LeSieg and one as Rosetta Stone . His books have topped many bestseller lists , sold over 600 million copies , and been translated into more than 20 languages . In 2000 , " Publishers Weekly " compiled a list of the best - selling children ' s books of all time ; of the top 100 hardcover books , 16 were written by Geisel , including " Green Eggs and Ham " , at number 4 , " The Cat in the Hat " , at number 9 , and " One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish " , at number 13 . In the years after his death in 1991 , two additional books were published based on his sketches and notes : " Hooray for Diffendoofer Day ! " and " Daisy - Head Mayzie " . " My Many Colored Days " , originally written in 1973 , was posthumously published in 1996 . In September 2011 , seven stories originally published in magazines during the 1950s were released in a collection entitled " The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories " . Geisel also wrote a pair of books for adults : " The Seven Lady Godivas " ( 1939 ; reprinted 1987 ) , a retelling of the Lady Godiva legend that included nude depictions ; and " You ' re Only Old Once ! " ( written in 1986 when Geisel was 82 ) , which chronicles an old man ' s journey through a clinic . His last book , published the year before his death , was " Oh , the Places You ' ll Go ! " , which became a popular gift for graduating students . Adaptations . For most of his career , Geisel was reluctant to have his characters marketed in contexts outside of his own books . However , he did allow for the creation of several animated cartoons , an art form in which he himself had gained experience during the Second World War , and gradually relaxed his policy as he aged . The first adaptation of one of Geisel ' s works was a cartoon version of " Horton Hatches the Egg " , animated at Warner Bros . in 1942 . Directed by Robert Clampett , it was presented as part of the Looney Tunes series , and included a number of gags not present in the original narrative , including a fish committing suicide and a Katharine Hepburn imitation by Maisie . In 1959 , Geisel authorized Revell , the well - known plastic - model - making company , to make a series of " animals " that snapped together rather than being glued together , and could be assembled , disassembled and re - assembled " in thousands " of ways . The series was called the " Dr . Seuss Zoo " and included Gowdy the Dowdy Grackle , Norval the Bashful Blinket , Tingo the Noodle Topped Stroodle and Roscoe the Many Footed Lion . The basic body parts were the same and all were interchangeable , and so it was possible for children to combine parts from various characters in essentially unlimited ways in creating their own animal characters ( Revell encouraged this by selling Gowdy , Norval and Tingo together in a " Gift Set " as well as individually ) . Revell also made a conventional glue - together " beginner ' s kit " of The Cat in the Hat . In 1966 , Geisel authorized the eminent cartoon artist Chuck Jones – his friend and former colleague from the war – to make a cartoon version of " How the Grinch Stole Christmas ! " ; Geisel was credited as a co - producer , along with Jones , under his real name , " Ted Geisel . " The cartoon , narrated by Boris Karloff , who also provided the voice of the Grinch , was very faithful to the original book , and is considered a classic by many to this day ; it is often broadcast as an annual Christmas television special . Jones directed an adaptation of " Horton Hears a Who ! " in 1970 , and produced an adaptation of " The Cat in the Hat " in 1971 . From 1972 to 1983 , Geisel wrote six animated specials , which were produced by DePatie - Freleng : " The Lorax " ( 1972 ) ; " Dr . Seuss on the Loose " ( 1973 ) ; " The Hoober - Bloob Highway " ( 1975 ) ; " Halloween Is Grinch Night " ( 1977 ) ; " Pontoffel Pock , Where Are You ? " ( 1980 ) ; and " The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat " ( 1982 ) . Several of the specials were nominated for and won multiple Emmy Awards . A Soviet paint - on - glass - animated short film called " Welcome " ( an adaptation of " Thidwick the Big - Hearted Moose " ) was made in 1986 . The last adaptation of Geisel ' s works before he died was " The Butter Battle Book " , a television special based on the book of the same name , directed by adult animation legend Ralph Bakshi . A television film titled " In Search of Dr . Seuss " , released in 1994 , adapted many of Seuss ' s stories . It uses both live - action versions and animated versions of the characters and stories featured ; however , the animated portions were merely edited ( and , in some cases , re - dubbed as well ) versions of previous animated television specials . After Geisel died of cancer at the age of 87 in 1991 , his widow Audrey Geisel was placed in charge of all licensing matters . She approved a live - action feature - film version of " How the Grinch Stole Christmas " starring Jim Carrey , as well as a Seuss - themed Broadway musical called " Seussical , " and both premiered in 2000 . " The Grinch " has had limited engagement runs on Broadway during the Christmas season , after premiering in 1998 ( under the title " How the Grinch Stole Christmas " ) at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego , where it has become a Christmas tradition . In 2003 , another live - action film was released , this time an adaptation of " The Cat in the Hat " that featured Mike Myers as the title character . Audrey Geisel was vocal in her dislike of the film , especially the casting of Myers as the Cat in the Hat , and stated that there would be no further live - action adaptations of Geisel ' s books . However , an animated CGI feature film adaptation of " Horton Hears a Who ! " was approved , and was eventually released on March 14 , 2008 , to critical acclaim . A CGI - animated feature film adaptation of " The Lorax " was released by Universal on March 2 , 2012 ( on what would have been the 108th birthday of Seuss ) . Four television series have been adapted from Geisel ' s work . The first , " Gerald McBoing - Boing " , was an animated television adaptation of Geisel ' s 1951 cartoon of the same name and lasted three months between 1956 and 1957 . The second , " The Wubbulous World of Dr . Seuss , " was a mix of live - action and puppetry by Jim Henson Television , the producers of The Muppets . It aired for one season on Nickelodeon in the United States , from 1996 to 1997 . The third , " Gerald McBoing - Boing , " is a remake of the 1956 series . Produced in Canada by Cookie Jar Entertainment , it ran from 2005 to 2007 . The fourth , " The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That ! " , produced by Portfolio Entertainment Inc . , began on August 7 , 2010 , in Canada and September 6 , 2010 , in the United States and is currently still showing . Geisel ' s books and characters are also featured in Seuss Landing , one of many islands at the Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando , Florida . In an attempt to match Geisel ' s visual style , there are reportedly " no straight lines " in Seuss Landing . " The Hollywood Reporter " has reported that Johnny Depp has agreed to produce and possibly star in a film based on Geisel ' s life . The film will be written by Keith Bunin , produced by Depp ' s Infinitum Nihil production company alongside Illumination Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures .