Dr Seuss

Theodor Seuss Geisel (March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991) was a German-American author, political cartoonist, poet, animator, book publisher, and artist, best known for authoring more than 60 children's books under the pen name ***Dr. Seuss***. His work includes several of the most popular children's books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death.

Geisel adopted the name "Dr. Seuss" as an undergraduate at Dartmouth College and a graduate student at the University of Oxford. He left Oxford in 1927 to begin his career as an illustrator and cartoonist for Vanity Fair, Life, and various other publications. He also worked as an illustrator for advertising campaigns, most notably for Flit and Standard Oil, and as a political cartoonist for the New York newspaper PM. He 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 and worked in an animation department of the United States Army where he produced several short films, including Design for Death, which later won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

After the war, Geisel focused on children's books once again, writing classics like 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). He published over 60 books during his career, which 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'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.

### As Dr Seuss

#### June 23, 1931: The Pocket Book of Boners

This book is a collection of humorous anecdotes and illustrations representing some of the earliest work credited to Dr. Seuss. The 1941 printing of The Pocket Book of Boners compiles four separate books that were issued in 1931.

#### December 21, 1937: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street

Marco watches the sight and sounds of people and vehicles traveling along Mulberry Street and dreams up an elaborate story to tell to his father at the end of his walk.

#### September 1, 1938: The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins

In the kingdom of Didd, King Derwin is riding through a street past Bartholomew Cubbins, a poor boy in the market. Bartholomew removes his hat, according to the laws, but another hat mysteriously appears; when he attempts to remove this one too, another one appears again, and this continues, even as he removes more and more hats, each growing in extravagance and beauty.

#### 1939: The King's Stilts

The story of King Bertram of Binn, who dedicates himself to safeguarding his kingdom, which has a precarious existence. It is surrounded by water, which is held back from flooding the land by a ring of dike trees, which are in turn subject to attack from flocks of nizzards. To protect the kingdom, a legion of Patrol Cats is organized to keep the nizzards at bay, and King Bertram sees to their care personally.

#### December 31, 1939: The Seven Lady Godivas

The seven Lady Godivas each learn a moral while taking care of a horse.

#### June 19, 1940: Horton Hatches the Egg

An elephant named Horton is convinced by an irresponsible bird named Mayzie to sit on her egg while she takes a short break, which proves to last for months. Made into a Merrie Melodies cartoon in 1942.

#### 1947: McElligot's Pool

A Caldecott Honor Book. A boy named Marco is ridiculed for fishing in a small, polluted pool, and tries to justify himself by imagining the fish he might catch. It is one of the few books by Geisel to use paintings as the medium for its illustrations, rather than his common use of pen and ink.

#### 1948: Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose

Thidwick, a moose who lives in a herd "about sixty or more", accepts a bug living on his antlers for free, who tells a spider of the free housing, and both accept a "Zinn-a-zu" bird, and this leads to a whole host of freeloaders taking up residence.

#### 1949: Bartholomew and the Oobleck

A Caldecott Honor Book. Bartholomew must rescue his kingdom from a sticky substance called oobleck. A sequel to The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.

#### 1952: If I Ran the Zoo

A Caldecott Honor Book. Gerald McGrew visits a zoo and finds that the animals are "not good enough" and describes how he would run the zoo. He would let all of the current animals free and find new, more bizarre and exotic ones.

#### November 2, 1950: Gerald McBoing Boing

Based on the Academy Award-winning short film of the same name. First Dr. Seuss book not illustrated by Geisel.

#### 1953: Scrambled Eggs Super!

A young boy named Peter T. Hooper spins a tale of an incredible meal he created by harvesting the eggs of fantastically exotic birds.

#### August, 1954: Horton Hears a Who!

Horton the Elephant of the Jungle of Nool hears a small speck of dust talking to him. The speck of dust is actually a tiny planet, home to a city called Who-ville, inhabited by microscopic-sized inhabitants known as Whos and led by a character known as the Mayor. Adapted into a feature length CGI film.

#### 1955: On Beyond Zebra!

The young narrator, not content with the confines of the ordinary alphabet, invents additional letters beyond Z, with a fantastic creature corresponding to each new letter.

#### 1956: If I Ran the Circus

Behind Mr. Sneelock's ramshackle store, there's an empty lot. Little Morris McGurk is convinced that if he could just clear out the rusty cans, the dead tree, and the old cars, nothing would prevent him from using the lot for the amazing, world-beating, Circus McGurkus.

#### March 12, 1957: The Cat in the Hat

The Cat in the Hat brings his companions, Thing One and Thing Two, to a household of two young children one rainy day. Chaos ensues while the children wonder how they are going to explain what happens to their mother. First Beginner Books entry written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss. Adapted into a 2003 feature-length film

#### 1957: How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

* October 12, 1957 in Redbook magazine
* November 24, 1957 in book form

In ***How the Grinch Stole Christmas!***, the Grinch, a bitter, cave-dwelling creature tries to steal everything related to Christmas by impersonating Santa Claus. Eventually he realises he has a heart for Christmas after all. Adapted into a 1966 television special starring Boris Karloff and a 2000 feature-length film with Jim Carrey.

The book criticises the commercialisation of Christmas.

#### January 1, 1958: The Cat in the Hat Comes Back

The Cat in the Hat returns and while he leaves Thing One and Thing Two at home, he does bring along Little Cat A nested inside his hat. Little Cat A doffs his hat to reveal Little Cat B, who in turn reveals C, and so on down to the microscopic Little Cat Z. Together they try to get rid of a pink ring that has spread from the bathtub to the dress, to the wall, into some shoes, and finally out onto the snow where they work to get rid of it.

#### April 12, 1958: Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories

* 1950/51 in Redbook magazine

Consists of three stories:

* Yertle the Turtle: Unsatisfied with the stone that serves as his throne, the king turtle commands the other turtles to stack themselves beneath him so that he can see further and expand his kingdom.
* Gertrude McFuzz: The "girl-bird" Gertrude McFuzz, has a small, plain tail and envies Lolla-Lee-Lou, who has two tail feathers.
* The Big Brag: A rabbit and a bear, both boast that they are the "best of the beasts", because of the range of their hearing and smelling abilities, respectively.

#### 1959: Happy Birthday to You!

Deals with a fantastic land, called Katroo, where the Birthday Bird throws everyone an amazing party on their special day.

#### 1960: One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

A simple rhyming book for learner readers, that has a freewheeling plot about a boy and a girl, and the many amazing creatures they have for friends and pets.

#### August 12, 1960: Green Eggs and Ham

Sam-I-am consistently pesters an unnamed character (who is also the narrator) to try green eggs and ham. The unnamed character refuses to eat the food, insisting that he would not like it until the end.

#### August 28, 1961: The Sneetches and Other Stories

* July, 1953: The Sneetches
* March, 1954: The Zax

Consists of four stories:

* The Sneetches: Because the star-bellied sneetches are being prejudicial to the plain-bellied Sneetches, a "fix-it-up chappie" named Sylvester McMonkey McBean appears and offers the Sneetches without stars a chance to have them by going through his Star-On Machine.
* The Zax: A North-going Zax and a South-going Zax meet face to face in the Prairie of Prax. They refuse to move out of the way for one another and end up staying there. Teaches the value of compromise.
* Too Many Daves: A mother, Mrs. McCave, who named all 23 of her sons Dave and has trouble telling them apart.
* What Was I Scared Of?: The tale of a character who repeatedly meets up with an empty pair of pale-green pants and has to learn to accept them.

#### 1962: Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book

A small bug yawn spreads contagiously and though various creatures, including the Foona Lagoona Baboona, the Collapsable Frink, the Chippendale Mupp, The Offt, and the Krandles.

#### 1963: Dr. Seuss's ABC

An alphabet book which features many strange creatures from the Aunt Annie's Alligator to the Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz.

#### 1963: Hop on Pop

Hop on Pop provides simple rhymes to help beginner reading, such as a character named Pat who sits on a hat, a cat, a bat and must not sit on that (which is a cactus). Shows a variety of characters and teaches sentence composition.

#### 1965: Fox in Socks

Mr. Fox challenges Mr. Knox with rhyming tongue-twisters, which begins to get on Knox's nerves.

#### 1965: I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew

A tale of a young person who discovers the "troubles" of life and wishes to escape them.

#### 1967: The Cat in the Hat Song Book

A book exploring a wide variety of Dr. Seuss songs. Piano Score and Guitar Chords by Eugene Poddany

#### 1968: The Foot Book

Introduces many different creatures with different feet. First Bright and Early Books entry written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss.

#### 1969: I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and Other Stories

The title story concerns a boy who brags that he can fight 30 tigers and win. However, he makes excuse after excuse, finally disqualifying all the tigers until he must fight no tigers at all. The illustrations are notable for their use of gouache and brush strokes rather than the usual pen and ink. Others stories include King Looie Katz, another warning against hierarchical society advocating self-reliance, and The Glunk That Got Thunk about the power of run-away imagination.

#### September 12, 1969: My Book about ME

This book is deliberately incomplete as there are blanks on every page where the child is meant to fill in answers specific to him or her.

#### 1970: I Can Draw It Myself

A coloring book featuring rhyming instructions to help children complete various pictures, culminating in a challenge to the child to draw his or her own "Big Something". The full title of the book is I Can Draw It Myself by Me, Myself.

#### August 12, 1970: Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?: Dr. Seuss's Book of Wonderful Noises!

The book shows the sounds "Mr. Brown" can make, such as a cow's "moo", a frying pan's "sizzle", and a hippo's "grum". It was written so children would be able to learn about onomatopoeia and the sounds that they hear every day.

#### 1971: The Lorax

The Lorax chronicles the plight of the environment and the Lorax (a mossy, bossy man-like creature resembling an emperor tamarin), who speaks for the trees against the greedy Once-ler. Also a feature length CGI film.

#### August 12, 1972: Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!

Marvin K. Mooney is asked to leave in many ways.

#### September 12, 1973: Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?

* February, 1956 in Redbook magazine

Discusses an amusing litany of terrible predicaments which could befall a person, with the repeated admonishment that "you're really quite lucky".

#### July 12, 1973: The Shape of Me and Other Stuff

Explores the adventures of two kids and their journey to learn about all the shapes and sizes that make up our world.

#### 1974: There's a Wocket in My Pocket!

A little boy talks about what strange creatures live in his house, such as the Yeps on the steps, the Nooth Grush on his toothbrush, the Yottle in the bottle and the Jertain in the curtain. The last Bright and Early Books entry illustrated by Dr. Seuss.

#### August 28, 1974: Great Day for Up!

Every new day starts a new adventure. Illustrated by Quentin Blake.

#### August 21, 1975: Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!

About the many amazing 'thinks' one can think and the endless possibilities and dreams that imagination can create.

#### August 12, 1976: The Cat's Quizzer

The Cat in the Hat asks many, sometimes ridiculous, questions of the reader. This is the only Beginner Books reissue (B-75) written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss.

#### November 12, 1978: I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!

The Cat in the Hat shows a Young Cat the fun he can get out of reading. Also shows that reading is a useful tool to acquire knowledge.

#### December 27, 1979: Oh Say Can You Say?

A collection of 25 tongue-twisters such as "Oh my brothers! Oh my sisters! These are Terrible Tongue Twisters!" The last Beginner Books entry illustrated by Dr. Seuss.

#### October 12, 1982: Hunches in Bunches

A boy is approached by numerous strange creatures with enormous gloved hats on their heads. Each "hunch" points out a different possible course of action with some even contradicting themselves.

#### January 12, 1984: The Butter Battle Book

The conflict between the Yooks and the Zooks over which side of bread to spread butter on leads to an arms race, each competing to make bigger and nastier weapons to outdo the other, which results in the threat of mutual assured destruction.

#### 1986: You're Only Old Once!

An old man journeys through a clinic and sees its inefficiency.

#### October 12, 1987: I Am Not Going to Get Up Today!

A lazy boy chooses to stay in bed despite media coverage and the arrival of the U.S. Marines. Illustrated by James Stevenson, the last Beginner Books entry written by Dr. Seuss.

#### 1987: The Tough Coughs as He Ploughs the Dough

A collection of Dr. Seuss' early writings and cartoons, edited by Richard Marschall.

#### January 22, 1990: Oh, the Places You'll Go!

The last book published before Dr. Seuss' death, about life and its challenges.

#### January 11, 1995: Daisy-Head Mayzie

The book is about a schoolgirl named Mayzie who one day suddenly sprouts a bright yellow daisy from her head. This makes her famous and she starts to miss her normal life. The book was originally not illustrated by Geisel but rather by an uncredited Joe Mathieu. The book is to be re-published with Geisel's illustrations in 2016.

#### March 1, 1996: My Many Colored Days

A rhyming story, written in 1973, which describes each day in a particular colour which is in turn associated with a specific emotion. Book paintings by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher, the final Dr. Seuss book not illustrated by Geisel.

#### 1997: Oh, Baby, the Places You'll Go!

A story meant to be read to babies in utero, bringing a large number of Dr. Seuss characters to print, showing the baby all the creatures and adventures they will get to meet and experience once they are born. It is considered a "baby-fied version" of "Oh! The Places You'll Go!" (1990).

#### January 1, 1998: Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!

The story surrounds a school that is well liked by its students notably because of its many eccentric teachers. Expanded and completed by Jack Prelutsky and illustrated by Lane Smith.

### As Theo. LeSieg

#### 1961: Ten Apples Up On Top!

Three animals, a lion, a dog, and a tiger, who consistently pile apples on their heads for fun.

#### August 12, 1965: I Wish That I Had Duck Feet

A boy wishes that he could have many different animal and mechanical body parts, finding fantastic uses for each.

#### November 12, 1966: Come over to My House

The illustrations of this book portray the various styles of homes that kids from around the world live in.

#### 1972: In a People House

A mouse shows a bird all the amazing things one can find in the everyday home.

#### 1974: Wacky Wednesday

Shows the adventures of a kid and how he learns to cope with an abnormal day.

#### 1976: Hooper Humperdink...? Not Him!

A certain kid (the narrator) invites all his friends- whose names begin with all 26 letters of the alphabet- to a party at his house, except for Hooper Humperdink, but changes his mind as soon as the others are already having fun.

#### 1980: Maybe You Should Fly a Jet! Maybe You Should Be a Vet!

Exposes the reader to many different types of careers.

#### 1981: The Tooth Book

Shows people and animals that have teeth, and ones that do not. Explains that you only get two sets of teeth, and briefly how to care for them.

### As Rosetta Stone

#### 1975: Because a Little Bug Went Ka-Choo!!

A bug sneezes, which sets off a series of larger and larger consequences, in the end nearly sending a whole town into chaos. Geisel wrote this book under the pen name Rosetta Stone.

### Theatrical

While Geisel was most famous for his literary works, he helped write several propaganda films, cartoon shorts, and feature-length film. Many of his literary works have also been adapted for the television and as feature-length films.

#### 1945: Your Job in Germany

* December 29, 1945: re-edited by Warner Bros and released as ***Hitler Lives?***

#### 1945: Our Job in Japan

* January, 1948 or April 14, 1948 (Wikipedia)/June 10, 1948 (IMDb.com): expanded on by RKO Radio Pictures and released as ***Design for Death***.

#### 1947: Design for Death

* January, 1948 or April 14, 1948 (Wikipedia)/June 10, 1948 (IMDb.com): an expansion on Our Job in Japan (1945) by RKO Radio Pictures.

### Musical

#### 1994: Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical

* November, 1994: Minneapolis
* 1998, annually to date: San Diego