Behind the Name: Meaning, origin and history of the name Theodor USAGE: German , Swedish , Norwegian , Danish , Czech , Romanian Meaning & History German form of THEODORE , as well as a Scandinavian, Czech and Romanian variant of TEODOR . A famous bearer was American children's book creator Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904-1991), better known as Dr. Seuss. Theodor Geisel Biography - childhood, children, name, story, death, wife, school, young, book, information, born Theodor Geisel Biography La Jolla, California American children's book author and illustrator Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, wrote the popular children's books The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, Horton Hatches the Egg, and many more. As Dr. Seuss, Geisel brought a whimsical touch and a colorful imagination to the world of children's books. Theodor Geisel. . Childhood and early career Theodor Geisel was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

His father owned a brewery until the onset of Prohibition, a time in the 1920s when buying and selling alcohol was made illegal. Geisel's father then took a job as superintendent of city parks, which included the local zoo. There, young Theodor spent many days drawing the animals and eventually developing his own unique style. Though Geisel would later gain fame because of his unique artistic style, he never once had an art lesson. After graduating high school, Geisel went on to graduate from Dartmouth College in 1925, and later studied at the Lincoln College of Oxford University in England. After dropping out of Oxford, he traveled throughout Europe, mingling with émigrés (those living abroad) in Paris, including writer Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961). Eventually returning to New York, he spent fifteen years in advertising before joining the army and making two Oscar-winning documentaries, "Hitler Lives" and "Design for Death," which he made with his wife, Helen Parker Geisel. He would also win an Oscar for his animated cartoon "Gerald McBoing Boing"(1951).

Also at this time Geisel began drawing and selling his cartoons to national magazines, including Vanity Fair and the Saturday Evening Post. Later he worked as an editorial cartoonist for PM newspaper in New York. First books Geisel began writing the verses of his first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, in 1936 during a rough sea passage. But success did not come easy for the young author, as Mulberry Street was rejected by twenty-nine different publishers before it was finally accepted. Published in 1937, the book won much praise, largely because of its unique drawings. All of Geisel's books, in fact, feature crazy-looking creatures that are sometimes based on real animals, but which usually consist of such bizarre combinations of objects as a centipede and a horse and a camel with a feather duster on its head. Unlike many puppeteers and cartoonists who have capitalized on their creations by selling their most familiar images to big-time toy-makers, Dr. Seuss concentrated his efforts on creating interesting books. In May 1954, after a string of successful books, Geisel published what would become his most famous book, The Cat in the Hat.

Legend has it that The Cat in the Hat was created, in part, because of a bet Geisel made with a publisher who said he could not write a complete children's book with less than 250 words. The Cat in the Hat came in at 223 words. In 1960 Geisel published his second-most successful book, Green Eggs and Ham, which used only fifty words. In 1958, from the success of his children's books, Geisel founded Beginner Books, which eventually became part of Random House. "Basically an educator" Admired among fellow authors and editors for his honesty and hard work, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, according to Ruth MacDonald in the Chicago Tribune, "perfected the art of telling great stories with a vocabulary as small as sometimes fifty-two or fifty-three words." "[Geisel] was not only a master of word and rhyme and an original and eccentric artist," Gerald Harrison, president of Random House's merchandise division, declared in Publisher's Weekly, "but down deep, I think he was basically an educator.

He helped teach kids that reading was a joy and not a chore.… For those of us who worked with him, he taught us to strive for excellence in all the books we published." Wrote for adults as well as children Geisel's last two books spent several months on the bestseller lists and include themes that appealed to adults as well as children. "Finally I can say that I write not for kids but for people," he commented in the Los Angeles Times. Many of his readers were surprised to learn that Geisel had no children of his own, though he had stepchildren from his second marriage to Audrey Stone Dimond. To this fact he once said, "You make 'em, I amuse 'em," as quoted in the Chicago Tribune. According to the Los Angeles Times, the author also remarked, "I don't think spending your days surrounded by kids is necessary to write the kind of books I write.… Once a writer starts talking down to kids, he's lost. Kids can pick up on that kind of thing." Before Geisel, juvenile books were largely pastel, predictable, and dominated by a didactic tone (a sense that the books were intended to instruct). Though Dr.

Seuss books sometimes included morals, they sounded less like behavioral guidelines and more like, "listen to your feelings" and "take care of the environment," universal ideas that would win over the hearts of youngsters from around the world. Geisel's 47 books were translated into 20 languages and have sold more than 200 million copies. Of the ten bestselling hardcover children's books of all time, four were written by Geisel: The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, and Hop on Pop. Theodor Geisel died September 24, 1991, in La Jolla, California. To children of all ages, Dr. Suess remains the most famous and influential name in children's literature. For More Information Dr. Seuss born - Mar 02, 1904 - HISTORY.com Dr. Seuss born Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1904, Theodor Geisel, better known to the world as Dr. Seuss, the author and illustrator of such beloved children’s books as “The Cat in the Hat” and “Green Eggs and Ham,” is born in Springfield, Massachusetts .

Geisel, who used his middle name (which was also his mother’s maiden name) as his pen name, wrote 48 books–including some for adults–that have sold well over 200 million copies and been translated into multiple languages. Dr. Seuss books are known for their whimsical rhymes and quirky characters, which have names like the Lorax and the Sneetches and live in places like Hooterville. Geisel, who was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts, graduated from Dartmouth College, where he was editor of the school’s humor magazine, and studied at Oxford University. There he met Helen Palmer, his first wife and the person who encouraged him to become a professional illustrator. Back in America, Geisel worked as a cartoonist for a variety of magazines and in advertising. The first children’s book that Geisel wrote and illustrated, “And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street,” was rejected by over two dozen publishers before making it into print in 1937. Geisel’s first bestseller, “The Cat in the Hat,” was published in 1957.

The story of a mischievous cat in a tall striped hat came about after his publisher asked him to produce a book using 220 new-reader vocabulary words that could serve as an entertaining alternative to the school reading primers children found boring. Other Dr. Seuss classics include “Yertle the Turtle,” “If I Ran the Circus,” “Fox in Socks” and “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.” Some Dr. Seuss books tackled serious themes. “The Butter Battle Book” (1984) was about the arms buildup and nuclear war threat during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. “Lorax” (1971) dealt with the environment. Many Dr. Seuss books have been adapted for television and film, including “How the Grinch Stole Christmas !” and “Horton Hears a Who!” In 1990, Geisel published a book for adults titled “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” that became a hugely popular graduation gift for high school and college students.

Geisel, who lived and worked in an old observatory in La Jolla, California , known as “The Tower,” died September 24, 1991, at age 87. Related Videos Ted Geisel | Dr. Seuss Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia [ show ] Life and career Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts [1] to Henrietta Seuss and Theodor Robert Geisel. [2] He had two sisters, Marnie and Henrietta. Henrietta died of pneumonia at 18 months old. He attended Fremont Intermediate School from age 12 to age 14. His father was a parks superintendent in charge of Forest Park (Springfield), a large park that included a zoo and was located three blocks from a library. Both Geisel's father and grandfather were brewmasters in Springfield, which may have influenced his views on Prohibition . As a freshman member of the Dartmouth College class of 1925, he became a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon . He also joined the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern , eventually rising to the rank of editor-in-chief.

(He took over the post from his close friend, author Norman MacLean .) However, after Geisel was caught throwing a drinking party (and thereby violating Prohibition laws), the school insisted that he resign from all extracurricular activities. In order to continue his work on the Jack-O-Lantern without the administration's knowledge, Geisel began signing his work with the pen name "Seuss" (which was both his middle name and his mother's maiden name). His first work signed as "Dr. Seuss" appeared after he graduated, six months into his work for humor magazine The Judge where his weekly feature Birdsies and Beasties appeared. [3] Seuss's family, having emigrated from Germany, would have pronounced their name as "zoice", the standard pronunciation in German (according to census, Geisel's mother was born in Massachusetts, and it was her parents who were the immigrants). Alexander Liang, who served with Geisel on the staff of the Jack-O- Lantern and was later a professor at Dartmouth, illustrated this point.

Though Geisel himself has been quoted as saying "Seuss -- rhymes with voice", the name is almost universally pronounced in English with an initial s sound and rhyming with "juice". [4] Geisel also used the pen name Theo. LeSieg (Geisel spelled backward) for books he wrote but others illustrated. He entered Lincoln College, Oxford , intending to earn a D.Phil in literature. At Oxford he met his future wife Helen Palmer ; he married her in 1927 and returned to the [ United States ] without earning the degree. The "Dr." in his pen name is an acknowledgment of his father's unfulfilled hopes that Seuss would earn a doctorate at Oxford. He began submitting humorous articles and illustrations to Judge , The Saturday Evening Post , 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 . 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 , and many other companies. He also wrote and drew a short-lived comic strip called Hejji in 1935. [3] In 1937, while Seuss 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 . Seuss wrote three more children's books before World War II (see list of works below), two of which are, atypically for him, in prose . As World War II began, Dr. Seuss turned to political cartoons, drawing over 400 in two years as editorial cartoonist for the left-wing New York City daily newspaper, PM. Dr. Seuss' political cartoons, later published in Dr. Seuss Goes to War, opposed the viciousness of Hitler and Mussolini and were highly critical of isolationists, most notably Charles Lindbergh, who opposed American entry into the war.

One cartoon [5] 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 conduct 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 and Chicago Tribune), and others for criticism of Roosevelt, criticism of aid to the Soviet Union, investigation of suspected Communists, and other offenses that he depicted as leading to disunity and helping the Nazis, intentionally or inadvertently. In 1942, Dr. Seuss turned his energies to direct support of the U.S. war effort. First, he worked drawing posters for the United States Department of the Treasury Department and the War Production Board.

Then, in 1943, he joined the Army and was commander of the Animation Dept 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, Design for Death, a study of Japanese culture that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1947, and the Private Snafu series of adult army training films. While in the Army, he was awarded the Legion of Merit. Dr. Seuss' non-military films from around this time were also well-received; Gerald McBoing-Boing won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Animated) in 1950. Despite his numerous awards, Dr. Seuss never won the Caldecott Medal nor the Newbery . Three of his titles were 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). After the war, Dr.

Seuss and his wife moved to La Jolla, California . Returning to children's books, he wrote what many consider to be his finest works, including such favorites as If I Ran the Zoo, (1950), Scrambled Eggs Super! (1953), On Beyond Zebra! (1955), If I Ran the Circus (1956), and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957). At the same time, an important development occurred that influenced much of Seuss' later work. 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, Seuss' publisher made up a list of 400 words he felt were important and asked Dr. Seuss to cut the list to 250 words and write a book using only those words. Nine months later, Seuss, using 220 of the words given to him, completed The Cat in the Hat .

This book was a tour de force it retained the drawing style, verse rhythms, and all the imaginative power of Seuss' earlier works, but because of its simplified vocabulary could be read by beginning readers. A rumor exists, that in 1960, Bennett Cerf bet Dr. Seuss $50 that he couldn't write an entire book using only fifty words. The result was supposed Green Eggs and Ham . The additional rumor that Cerf never paid Seuss the $50 has never been proven and is most likely untrue. These books achieved significant international success and remain very popular. Dr. Seuss 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. In 1982, Dr. Seuss wrote, " Hunches in Bunches ". The Beginner Books were not easy for Seuss, and reportedly he labored for months crafting them. At various times Seuss also wrote books for adults that used the same style of verse and pictures: The Seven Lady Godivas ; Oh, The Places You'll Go! ; and You're Only Old Once .

On October 23 , 1967 , during a very difficult illness, Dr. Seuss' wife, Helen Palmer Geisel, committed suicide. Seuss married Audrey Stone Dimond on June 21 , 1968 . Seuss himself died, following several years of illness, in La Jolla, California on September 24 , 1991 . On December 1 , 1995 UCSD 's University Library Building was renamed Geisel Library in honor of Audrey and Seuss for the generous contributions they have made to the library and their devotion to improving literacy. [6] Dr. Seuss was frequently confused, by the US Postal Service among others, with Dr. Suess ( Hans Suess ), his contemporary living in the same locality, La Jolla . Their names have been linked together posthumously: the personal papers of Hans Suess are housed in the Geisel Library at UC San Diego . [1] In 2002, the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden opened in his birthplace of Springfield, Massachusetts ; it features sculptures of Dr. Seuss and of many of his characters.

Though he devoted most of his life to writing children's books, he never had any children himself. Artwork Dr. Seuss' earlier artwork often employed the shaded texture of pencil drawings or watercolors 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. Seuss' 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 Seuss 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. Seuss 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. Seuss also drew elaborate imaginary machines, of which the Audio-Telly-O-Tally-O-Count, from Dr.

Seuss' Sleep Book, is one example. Seuss 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 . Dr. Seuss' 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 character was twiddling their thumbs. Seuss 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.

Cartoonist's 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 Seuss' early work in advertising and editorial cartooning produced sketches that received a perfect realization later in the children's books. Often, the expressive use to which Seuss put an image, later on, was quite different from the original. [7] An editorial cartoon of July 16 , 1941 [8] depicts a whale resting on the top of a mountain, as a parody of American isolationists , especially Charles Lindbergh . This was later rendered (with no apparent political content) as the Wumbus of On Beyond Zebra (1955). Seussian whales (cheerful and balloon-shaped, with long eyelashes) also occur in McElligot's Pool, If I Ran the Circus, and other books. Another editorial cartoon from 1941 [9] shows a long cow with many legs and udders, representing the conquered nations of Europe being milked by Adolf Hitler . This later became the Umbus of On Beyond Zebra.

The tower of turtles in a 1942 editorial cartoon [10] prefigures a similar tower in Yertle the Turtle . This theme also appeared in a Judge cartoon as one letter of a hieroglypic message, and in Seuss' short-lived comic strip Hejji . Seuss once stated that Yertle the Turtle was Adolf Hitler. [11] Little cats A B and C (as well as the rest of the alphabet) who spring from each other's hats appeared in a Ford ad. The connected beards in Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? appear frequently in Dr. Seuss' work, most notably in Hejii, which featured two goats joined at the beard, The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T, which featured two roller-skating guards joined at the beard, and a political cartoon in which Nazism and the America First movement are portrayed as "the men with the Siamese Beard." Seuss' earliest elephants were for advertising and had somewhat wrinkly ears, much as real elephants do.

[12] With And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street (1937) and Horton Hatches the Egg (1940), the ears became more stylized, somewhat like angel wings and thus appropriate to the saintly Horton. During World War II, the elephant image appeared as an emblem for India in four editorial cartoons. [13] Horton and similar elephants appear frequently in the postwar children's books. While drawing advertisements for Flit , Seuss became adept at drawing insects with huge stingers, [14] shaped like a gentle S-curve and with a sharp end that included a rearward-pointing barb on its lower side. Their facial expressions depict gleeful malevolence. These insects were later rendered in an editorial cartoon as a swarm of Allied aircraft [15] (1942), and again as the Sneedle of On Beond Zebra, and yet again as the Skritz in I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew . Adaptations of Dr. Seuss' work For most of his career, Dr. Seuss was reluctant to have his characters marketed in contexts outside of his own books.

However, he did allow a few animated cartoons, an art form in which he himself had gained experience during the Second World War. Seuss' first cartoon adaptation was Horton Hatches the Egg in 1942. It was animated at Warner Brothers, the same studio for which he co-created Private Snafu. Directed by Robert Clampett, Horton was presented as part of the Looney Tunes series. It included a number of gags not present in the original narrative, such as a fish committing suicide and the lead antagonist's affinity for Katharine Hepburn. In 1966, Seuss 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! . Seuss, as "Ted Geisel", is credited as a co-producer along with Jones. This cartoon was very faithful to the original book. It is considered a classic by many to this day and is in the large catalog of annual Christmas television specials. Several more animated specials based on Seuss' work followed, including cartoon versions of Horton Hears a Who! , The Lorax and The Cat in the Hat in 1971, but the latter was considered less successful.

Toward the end of his life, Seuss seems to have relaxed his policy, and several other cartoons and toys were made featuring his characters, usually the Cat in the Hat and the Grinch. 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 Seuss' works before he died was The Butter Battle Book , a TV special based on the book of the same name, directed by adult animation legend Ralph Bakshi . Seuss himself called the special "the most faithful adaptation of his work." When Seuss 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 film version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! starring Jim Carrey , as well as a Seuss-themed Broadway musical called Seussical (both released 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. A live-action film based on The Cat in the Hat was released in 2003, featuring Mike Myers as the title character. Audrey Geisel was said to have been very vocal in her dislike of the film, and is believed to have said there would be no further live-action adaptations of Seuss' books. [16] A CGI animated film adaptation of Horton Hears a Who! opened on March 14, 2008. Dr. Seuss' books and characters also now appear in an amusement park: the Seuss Landing 'island' at the Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando, Florida . Product tie-ins (cereal boxes, and so on) have also been implemented. To stay true to the books, there is not one single straight line in all of Seuss Landing: everything curves around.

Best-selling books In 2000, Publishers Weekly compiled a list of the best-selling children's books of all time (hardcover and softcover lists were printed separately). No. Omnibus volumes A Hatfull of Seuss: Five Favorite Dr. Seuss Stories Bartholomew and the Oobleck (1949), If I Ran the Zoo (1950), Horton Hears a Who! (1954), The Sneetches and Other Stories (1961), and Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book (1962) Your Favorite Seuss : A Baker's Dozen by the One and Only Dr. Seuss Molly Leach (Designer) And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, Horton Hears a Who!, McElligot's Pool, If I Ran the Zoo, Happy Birthday to You!, Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book, Yertle the Turtle, The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Green Eggs and Ham, The Lorax, The Sneetches, and Oh, the Places You'll Go! Six By Seuss: A Treasury of Dr.

Seuss Classics And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, Horton Hatches the Egg, Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Lorax Writing as Theo. LeSieg Horton Hears a Who! : a 2008 CGI film (posthumous) Further reading Theodor Seuss Geisel: The Early Works, Volume 1 ( Checker Book Publishing , 2005; ISBN 1-933160-01-2 ), Early Works Volume 1 is the first of a series collecting various political cartoons, advertisements, and various images drawn by Geisel long before he had written any of his world-famous books. Dr. Seuss From Then to Now (New York: Random House, 1987; ISBN 0-394-89268-2 ) is a biographical retrospective published for the exhibit of the same title at the San Diego Museum of Art Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel,a biography by close friends Judith and Neil Morgan (1995, Random House) The Secret Art of Dr.

Seuss by Audrey Geisel (New York: Random House, 1995; ISBN 0-679-43448-8 ) contains many full-color reproductions of Geisel's private, previously unpublished artwork. Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel, a selection with commentary by Richard Minnear (New Press, 2001; ISBN 1-56584-704-0 ). Oh, the Places He Went, a story about Dr. Seuss by Maryann Weidt (Carolrhoda Books, 1995; ISBN 0-87614-627-2 ) The Seuss, the Whole Seuss, and Nothing But the Seuss: A Visual Biography of Theodor Seuss Geisel by Charles Cohen (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2004; ISBN 0-375-82248-8 ). Dr.

Seuss: American Icon by Philip Nel (Continuum Publishing, 2004; ISBN 0-8264-1434-6 ) The Annotated Cat: Under the Hats of Seuss and His Cats by Philip Nel (Random House, 2007; ISBN 978-0-375-83369-4 ) The Tough Coughs as he Ploughs the Dough: Early Writings and Cartoons by Dr. Seuss, edited and with an introduction by Richard Marschall (also includes autobiographical material); ISBN 0-688-06548-1 The Boy on Fairfield Street by Kathleen Krull. It tells about the childhood of Dr. Seuss and shows the sources of many of his inspirations. 8 things you didn’t know about Dr. Seuss | PBS NewsHour 8 things you didn’t know about Dr. Seuss EMAIL BY Joshua Barajas July 22, 2015 at 1:06 PM EST Theodor “Ted” Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr.

Seuss, on his last visit to his hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts in 1986. Photo courtesy of Springfield Union-News A long-lost manuscript from the beloved author and illustrator Dr. Seuss will be released next week, marking a quarter-century since his swan song “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” empowered us to move mountains. The posthumous “What Pet Should I Get?” arrives July 28, two years after the author’s widow unearthed the story’s text and sketches. It features the siblings from “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish” on a trip to the pet store, which we know is never that sensible with a Seuss book. Philip Nel, author of “Dr. Seuss: American Icon,” and Guy McLain, director of the Wood Museum of Springfield History, discuss how the author’s advertising beginnings gave way to Zooks and Zummers, pulling children’s literature away from the tsk-tsking of the Dick and Jane books and obliterating the boring belief that young readers ought to be prim and proper. Thing 1. He got his sense of poetry from his mother.

Theodor “Ted” Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts, and years before his middle name became synonymous with rhyming whimsy in children’s books, “Seuss” was also his mother’s maiden name. In their 1995 biography of the author, Judith and Neil Morgan said that connection carried significance for Seuss, who credited his mother with inspiring his well-known rhymes. Henrietta Seuss would chant softly to her children at bedtime with rhymes she memorized from her time working in her father’s bakery: “Apple, mince, lemon … peach, apricot, pineapple … blueberry, coconut, custard and SQUASH!” “[Seuss] later said that, more than anyone else, his mother was responsible ‘for the rhythms in which I write and the urgency with which I do it,’” the Morgans wrote. An early cartoon from Geisel in 1920 that was published in The Central Recorder, a newspaper of Central High School in Springfield. Image courtesy of Wood Museum of Springfield History Archives, Springfield Museums Thing 2. He never had any biological children. The popular children’s author was childless.

When asked why a writer of children’s books has no children of his own, Nel said Seuss had a response ready: “You make them, I’ll amuse them.” Seuss wrote his first children’s book, an unpublished A-B-C book of creatures, in 1931, around the same time his first wife Helen Palmer learned she could not biologically carry children, according to the Morgans’ 1995 biography. “I don’t think that’s a coincidence,” Nel said. “In some ways, he wrote for children to speak to that need in himself.” After Helen died by suicide in 1967, Seuss eventually remarried to Audrey Dimond , who had two daughters, in 1968. Seuss at his drawing table. Photo courtesy of Elizabeth N. Cahill In more than 40 books to his name, including “The Cat in the Hat” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!,” strange vehicles and animals and nonsense were the author’s way to communicate with children in general. Unlike the didactic Dick and Jane books that preached Victorian morals, Seuss’ stories did not tell children how to behave, McLain said.

He simply made children’s literature a lot more fun, he added. Compare the Cat’s chaos to lines like “Look. Look. Oh, look. See Jane.” The made-up words and insistent rhymes did not diminish the Lorax’s environmental message or dampen the anti-discrimination story of the Sneetches. He took children seriously, Nel said. When asked about writing for children, Seuss has said : “I don’t write for children. I write for people.” 3. The pen name “Dr. Seuss” began as a way to escape punishment in college. In 1925, in the midst of the Prohibition Era, Seuss and his friends were caught drinking gin in his Dartmouth dormitory dorm, Nel said. As punishment, Seuss was stripped of his editorship at the college’s humor magazine, Jack-O-Lantern. However, he continued to publish work under a variety of pseudonyms, including “T. Seuss.” Several other varying monikers, such as “Dr. Theophrastus Seuss,” appeared over the years, which he eventually shortened to “Dr. Seuss” as his go-to professional pen name.

In 1961, with his book “Ten Apples Up on Top!,” Seuss began collaborating with illustrators for books he wrote. For these, he used the pseudonym “Theo. LeSieg,” which is “Geisel” spelled backward. He also published one book, 1975’s “Because a Little Bug Went Ka-Choo!!”, under the pen name “Rosetta Stone.” And although there’s no known evidence to support the claim, Nel said that Seuss meant to save his real name for the Great American Novel that he would one day write. Instead, Seuss debuted the Cat and the Grinch the same year in 1957, two of his most famous characters. The Cat and the Grinch were also facets of the man, Nel said. The rule-breaking, mischievous Cat spoke to the author’s sense of play, while the Grinch represented the cantankerous part of Seuss’ personality. He had a vanity license plate that read, “GRINCH,” Nel said. 4. He joined the war effort. Beginning in 1941, Seuss produced political cartoons for the left-wing newspaper PM in New York.

In those pages, he criticized the U.S. policy of isolationism, urging the country to enter World War II. He also lambasted anti-Semitism and racism, although his depictions of Japanese people with exaggerated racial features proved problematic. “Insure your home against Hitler!”, a July 28, 1942 political cartoon from Dr. Seuss. Image courtesy of Special Collection & Archives, UC San Diego Library “Cages cost money!”, a Dec. 15, 1941 political cartoon from Dr. Seuss. Image courtesy of Special Collection & Archives, UC San Diego Library By 1942, Seuss was keen on joining the navy, but was instead asked to make war propaganda films with Oscar-winning director Frank Capra. Joined by P.D. Eastman of “Go, Dog. Go!” fame, Mel Blanc and Chuck Jones among others, Seuss co-created Private Snafu (“Situation Normal, All Fouled Up”), a cartoon dolt in a military uniform meant to teach new recruits how to be a good soldier. The black-and-white cartoon series was also off-color — and a hit with soldiers. “It’s so cold, it would freeze the nuts off a jeep,” one cartoon begins .

Video by Periscope Film Seuss ended up writing most of the cartoons. The series proved a training ground for his rhymes, story development and working with limited vocabulary. 5. He was a successful ad man before a children’s author. Seuss’ first foray into children’s literature was with “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” in 1937. Before then, he had a successful career in advertising . He wrote copy and drew advertisements for companies such as Standard Oil and Flit bug spray, which, in particular, became his most lucrative work. Seuss had his first taste of contributing to the American vernacular in 1928 when the catchphrase “Quick, Henry, the Flit!” from one of his ads for the Flit insecticide became popular. The ad campaign was such a hit that Seuss continued to produce work for the company for 17 years. A Flit bug spray advertisement proof, between 1930 and 1940. Image courtesy of Special Collection & Archives, UC San Diego Library A Standard Oil Company – Essolube advertisement, between 1930 and 1940.

Image courtesy of Special Collection & Archives, UC San Diego Library “The only good thing Adolph Hitler did in starting World War II was that he enabled me to join the Army and finally stop drawing ‘Quick, Henry, the Flit!’” Seuss is quoted as saying in Thomas Fensch’s biography of the author. 6. His all-time best-selling book was created on a bet. Dr. Seuss’ editor Bennett Cerf bet him he couldn’t write a book using 50 or fewer words. The result is 1960’s “Green Eggs and Ham.” Although the Cat and the Grinch are among Seuss’ most iconic characters, the story of Sam-I-Am trying to convince an unknown character to eat green eggs and ham has sold more than eight million copies since publication, according to a 2011 Publishers Weekly list . Video by YouTube user hooray0008 Can you craft a best-seller with these 50 words?

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 7. He gifted the English language with “nerd” and redefined “grinch.” In 1950’s “If I Ran the Zoo,” a kid rattles off a list of fantastical creatures that rival the animals found in the zoo: “I’ll sail to Ka-Troo and bring back an It-Kutch, a Preep, and a Proo,/A Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker too!” In the book, a sign identifies a “nerd” as a red and yellow and white-haired sourpuss . It appears to be the first documented instance of the word, which has since morphed into a put-down for bookish people.

Writing for The Boston Globe, Ben Zimmer said the word “nerd” has no one particular historical source, but it is a credible theory that Seuss played a role in popularizing it . And while Seuss didn’t invent “grinch,” the word’s meaning — a grouchy person — is all him, Nel said. “He actually changed the language,” Nel said. “There are poets that do that, but it’s not common.” “Nerkle,” however, has yet to catch on. 8. He wrote two adult books, one with nude drawings. “The Seven Lady Godivas: The True Facts Concerning History’s Barest Family” was a flop when it came out in 1939. The book featured the unclothed sisters throughout the book in a decidedly unsexy story. “[Seuss] would like to say he felt it was a flop because he couldn’t draw sexy, naked ladies,” Nel said. “And he has a point. Imagine naked ladies drawn by Dr. Seuss. Not particularly erotic.” On subsequent reissues, there was a claim on the books that “Lady Godivas” was “reissued by multitudinous demand,” “which is a lie because no one wanted it,” Nel said.

Besides being an interesting failure, a book of naked illustrations also upset the people’s notion of Dr. Seuss, Nel said. His other adult book was the picture book “You’re Only Old Once,” published in 1986 about the indignities of growing older. Dr. Seuss - Theodor Geisel World War II Political Cart Said a whale, "There is so much commotion, Such fights among fish in the ocean. I'm saving my scalp Living high on an Alp ... (Dear Lindy! He gave me the notion!) ... Other cartoons portray American isolationists as uncaring, one features a woman, named "America First" reading a violent tale from a book titled "Adolf the Wolf" to her children. She reads aloud, "and the wolf chewed up the children and spit out their bones... but those were foreign children and it really didn't matter." While the Dr. Seuss cartoons have strong criticism for isolationists of the "America First" type ideology, Geisel was careful not to say that are actually Nazis, but that they are dangerous to America nonetheless. Many will be pleased at the forward way Geisel addressed Nazism, fascism, anti-Semitism, and discrimination against African-Americans.

American cartoonist Art Spiegelman, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus, commenting on these illustrations wrote, "These cartoons rail against isolationism, racism, and ant-Semitism with a conviction and fervor lacking in most other American editorial pages of the period. These are virtually the only editorial cartoons outside the communist and black press that decried the military's Jim Crow policies and Charles Lindbergh's anti-Semitism. Dr. Seuss said that he 'had no great causes or interest in social issues until Hitler,' and explained that 'PM was against people who pushed other people around. I liked that.' More of a humanist than an ideologue, one of those Groucho rather than Karl Marxists, Dr. Seuss made these drawings with the fire of honest indignation and anger that fuels all real political art. If they have a flaw, it's an absolutely endearing one: they're funny." Many will find a major lapse in the stereotypical portrayal of Japanese and Japanese-Americans. Geisel drew cartoons that today are considered racist by many, months before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

A cartoon many find disturbing was published by PM on February 13, 1942, titled, "Waiting for the signal from home." It shows a legion of many thousands of identical Japanese-Americans stretching along the West Coast of the United States from Washington, Oregon, to California, lined up to pick-up packages of TNT stored at a building with a sign that reads, "Honorable 5th Column." This cartoon draws on the impression many Americans had that Japanese-Americans were unpatriotic and un-trustworthy. It was widely believed that Japanese-American saboteurs would engage in destruction if ordered to do so by the Japanese Emperor. This bias along with the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor lead to the act of imprisoning Japanese-Americans in internment camps. PM on January 13, 1942 published a Geisel cartoon featuring John Haynes Holmes, a prominent Unitarian minister and pacifist, noted for his anti-war activism, and a Japanese soldier holding a knife and a severed head. The newspaper received a flood of mail defending the minister.

Geisel responded with an editorial that appeared in PM on January 21, 1942 (ellipses in original): "In response to the letters defending John Haynes Holmes... sure, I believe in love, brotherhood and a cooing white pigeon on every man's roof. I even think it's nice to have pacifists and strawberry festivals...in between wars. "But right now, when the Japs are planting their hatchets in our skulls, it seem like a hell of a time for us to smile and warble: 'Brothers!' It is a rather flabby battlecry. "If we want to win, we've got to kill Japs, whether it depresses John Haynes Holmes or not. We can get palsy-walsy afterward with those that are left." Some see Geisel as later being penitent. Geisel traveled to Japan a few years after the war. It has been common speculation that to some degree in Geisel's "Horton Hears a Who!" (1954), dedicated to a Japanese professor Geisel met in Japan, the Whos represent the Japanese. According to Richard Minear, author of "Dr.

Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel" published in 1999, "Horton Hears a Who!" is an allegory for the American post-war occupation of Japan. After the Pearl Harbor attack ended the isolation debate, Geisel's illustrations focused more on morale building and promoting the sale of war bonds. Overall Geisel reserved most of his antagonism for Adolf Hitler, who appeared in 108 of Dr. Seuss's World War II political cartoons.

Issue, subjects, and topics appearing throughout the two years of cartoons drawn by Geisel, from January 1941 to January 1943 include: America First, Anti-Comintern Pact, Anti-Semitism, Appeasement, Bureaucracy, Carelessness, Committee on Un-American Activities, Communism, Complacency, Congress, Defeatism, Disunity, Domestic Security, Elections, Foreign Aid, German Invasion of Soviet Union, "Good News/Bad News", Inactivity, Inflation, Isolationism, Japanese Fuel Imports, Journalism, Labor Effect on War Production, Lend-Lease Act, Military, Neutrality Act, The Normandie, Overconfidence, Patriotism of Japanese-Americans, Peace Negotiations, Political Corruption, Production, Propaganda, Racism, Rationing & Recycling, Recruitment, Republican Party, Savings Bonds and Stamps, "Society of Red Tape Cutters," Tammany Hall, Taxes, United Nations, War Bonds, War Effort, War Industries and War Profiteers. People drawn include major figures of the day including Franklin D.

Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Goebbels and Hideki Togo. Other individuals drawn or mentioned include: Theodore Bilbo, Clare Chennault, Charles E. Coughlin, Stafford Cripps, John Cudahy, Elmer Davis, Jean Darlan, Martin Dies Jr., Hamilton Fish, Virginio Gayda, John Haynes Holmes, Herbert Hoover, Cordell Hull, Ernest G. King, Frank Knox, Fiorello LaGuardia, Pierre Laval, John Lewis, Douglas MacArthur, Robert R. McCormick, Vyacheslav Molotov, Admiral Chester Nimitz, Gerald Nye, William O'Dwyer, Eleanor Patterson, Joe Patterson, Henri Phillipe Pétain, Robert Reynolds, Erwin Rommel, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gerald L.K. Smith, Eugene Talmadge, Norman Thomas, Sumner Wells and Burton Wheeler. In 1942, Geisel began drawing posters for the Treasury Department and the War Production Board. In 1943, Geisel joined the U.S. Army as a captain.

Captain Geisel was the commander of the Animation Department of the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Forces. He participated in the production of the Private Snafu Army training series, and the post war Army training films "Our Job in Japan" (1945) and "Your Job in Germany" (1945). A few years after the war he returned to Children's literature. In the post war years Geisel produced his most successful Dr. Seuss books: Horton Hears a Who! (1954) The Cat in the Hat (1957) How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957) Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories (1958) One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (1959) Green Eggs and Ham (1960) The Sneetches and Other Stories (1961) The Lorax (1971) The Butter Battle Book (1984) The genesis of many of the Seussian characters in these books can be seen in the Dr. Seuss PM newspapers cartoons. The disc also includes a glossary of individuals portrayed or mentioned in the cartoons.

The reputations of many of these figures have not remained in common knowledge past the mid 20th century. Such as: Theodore Bilbo - Former governor of Mississippi, Democrat U.S. Senator from Mississippi, (1935–47). Geisel's drawing of him refers to his mastery of the filibuster. Charles E. Coughlin - A controversial Roman Catholic priest, who during his weekly radio broadcasts made anti-Semitic comments and favored some of the actions taken by Hitler and Mussolini. Stafford Cripps - British ambassador to the Soviet Union, which was allied with Nazi Germany through the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Cripps led a mission to Moscow in 1940 and obtained a secret and explicit pledge that the Soviet Union would enter the war on the British side. Robert R. McCormick - Owner and publisher of the Chicago Tribune newspaper. A leading non-interventionist, an opponent of American entry into World War II and of the increase in Federal power brought about by the New Deal. Hamilton Fish - U.S. House of Representatives member from New York. A November 16, 1942 Time magazine article referred to him as, "the Nation's No.

1 isolationist: In 1939 he believed Germany's claims were 'just'; in 1941 he became entangled in Nazi Agent George Sylvester Viereck's messy affairs." Norman Thomas - an American Presbyterian minister, known as a socialist and a pacifist, was a six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. In 1937, he formed the "Keep America Out of War Congress." After the Pearl Harbor bombing he changed his position to supporting for US involvement. 0 Books | By Alison Nastasi | March 2, 2014 A wizard of the written word, today marks the 110th birthday of Theodor Geisel — better known as the dear Dr. Seuss. The beloved children’s author and illustrator created a menagerie of creatures that recited anapestic tetrameter, caused trouble, and captured our imaginations. The man behind beasties like the Grinch, Lorax, and Sneetches was a fascinating character in his own right. Here are 20 facts about the great Dr. you might have missed.

Geisel adopted his famous moniker after getting kicked off the staff of Dartmouth College’s humor magazine, the Jack-O-Lantern. He was caught drinking bootleg gin with his pals and was forced to resign from extracurricular activities at school. He started signing his work with the pen name “Seuss” to hide it from his editor. Geisel almost earned his doctorate in English literature, but left Oxford to travel Europe and sow his artistic oats. Dartmouth awarded Geisel an honorary doctorate in 1956, and he added “Dr.” to his pen name as a way to acknowledge his father’s dreams for him. A known perfectionist, Geisel would sometimes spends months or even up to a year creating a book. Despite this, he somehow found time to write over 45 children’s books during his colorful career. Shockingly, Geisel never won the Caldecott or Newbery Medals. He was recognized with the Caldecott Honor three times: McElligot’s Pool (1947), Bartholomew and the Oobleck (1949), and If I Ran the Zoo (1950).

Thanks to his love of language, Geisel is usually credited with inventing the word “nerd.” It appeared in his 1950 book, If I Ran the Zoo. However, it wasn’t popularized as a slang term until the 1960s. Literary Analysis of Dr. Seuss Essay - 1701 Words Please sign up to read full document. Text Preview Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, is perhaps one of the most beloved children's authors of the twentieth century. Although he is most famous as an author of children's books, Geisel was also a political cartoonist, advertisement designer, and film director (Kaplan). He used the power of imagination to produce unforgettable children's books and helped solve the problem of illiteracy among America's children. By using his experiences in life as a foundation for most of his books, Theodor Geisel created a unique writing style that incorporated various elements and techniques, enabling his books to appeal to people of all ages. The animated life of Theodor Geisel is evident in his literary masterpieces.

He was born on March 2, 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts to Theodor and Henrietta Geisel (Ford 14). Geisel grew up speaking German and English, and his fascination with quirky words began at an early age due to his family. For example, his sister, Margaretha, called herself Marnie Ding Ding Guy, and his first creation was the Wynnmph with ears three yards long (Kaplan). During his childhood, Geisel read widely and often - developing his voracious reading habit at an early age. By the time he was six years old, Ted was already reading Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson (Kaplan). However, college education never interested him. Labeled "Least Likely To Succeed" by his fellow classmates at Dartmouth University, Theodor often got in trouble for partying and was forced to resign from the school humor magazine. This gave birth to numerous pseudonyms of Geisel, such as L. Burbank, Thomas Mott Osbourne, Ted Seuss, Seuss, Dr. Seuss, and Theo LeSieg (Hurst).

In his adult life, Theodor created various political cartoons for Judge, a humor magazine, and PM, a noted political magazine. The illustrations in these early cartoons foreshadow the quirky illustrations found in his children's books (Kaplan). Geisel turned to writing children's books when creating numerous ads for the popular insecticide, Flit, left him with little to do during the winter months (Hurst). By 1990, Dr. Seuss had written over forty books, two of which were Caldecott Honor books, and won two Academy Awards for his documentaries (Krull 39). Unfortunately, battling glaucoma and cataracts became too much for Theodor; he died on September 24, 1991 in his studio with his toy dog and second wife, Audry, by his side (Kaplan). During his lifetime, Seuss' family had a major influence on his writing; the sounds and absurdities of German and English spoken in the household were sources of inspiration and influence for many of his works. For example, his peculiar character names, such as Lorax and Thidwick the Moose, came from his childhood experiences at his father's zoo (Kaplan).

Growing up during World War I subjected Geisel to anti-German sentiment, isolating him from society. As a result, his family would often plot revenge and practical jokes against their neighbors; these plots generated laughter because they were never actually carried out. The family plots from Seuss' childhood are tell-tale signs of his later works published in his adult life (Kaplan). Besides his immediate family, his first wife, Helen Geisel, was also one of Seuss' literary influences; she was his severest critic and strongest editor (Kaplan). She was instrumental in the creative process and was as much a perfectionist as Seuss (Kaplan). Dr. Seuss' literary influences were not just his family and wife  his publishers pushed him just as much. Theodor's editor bet him fifty dollars that he could not write a children's book using only fifty words. Taking on the bet, Dr. Seuss took months to write Green Eggs and Ham; the success of this book led to a new division of books called Beginner Books, with Ted appointed as President (Kaplan). Another publisher challenged Seuss to write a story using only a list of words first graders needed to learn. Using...

Please sign up to read full document. YOU MAY ALSO FIND THESE DOCUMENTS HELPFUL Theodor Geisel - Biography Theodor Geisel Bith Date: March 2, 1904 Death Date: September 24, 1991 Place of Birth: Springfield, Massachusetts, United States Nationality: American Gender: Male Occupations: writer Theodor Geisel (1904-1991), better known as Dr. Seuss, wrote the popular children's book The Cat in the Hat, among others. Theodor Geisel, better known to millions of children as Dr. Seuss, brought a whimsical touch and a colorful imagination to the world of children's books. Before Geisel, juvenile books were largely pastel, predictable, and dominated by a didactic tone. Though Dr. Seuss books sometimes included morals, they sounded less like behavioral guidelines and more like, "listen to your feelings" and "take care of the environment," universal ideas that would win over the hearts of youngsters from around the world; Geisel's 47 books were translated into 20 languages and have sold more than 200 million copies.

Of the ten bestselling hardcover children's books of all time, four were written by Geisel: The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, and Hop on Pop. Wrote for Adults as well as Children Geisel's last two books spent several months on the bestseller lists and include themes that appeal to adults as well as children. "Finally I can say that I write not for kids but for people," he commented in the Los Angeles Times. Many of his readers were surprised to learn that Geisel had no children of his own, though he had stepchildren from his second marriage to Audrey Stone Dimond; he once said, "You make 'em, I amuse 'em," as quoted in the Chicago Tribune. According to the Los Angeles Times, the author also remarked, "I don't think spending your days surrounded by kids is necessary to write the kind of books I write.... Once a writer starts talking down to kids, he's lost. Kids can pick up on that kind of thing." Practiced Drawing at the Zoo When he was a child, Geisel practiced sketching at the local zoo, where his father was superintendent.

He went on to graduate from Dartmouth College in 1925 and subsequently studied at the Lincoln College of Oxford University. After dropping out of Oxford, he traveled throughout Europe, mingling with emigres in Paris, including writer Ernest Hemingway. Eventually returning to New York, he spent 15 years in advertising before joining the army and making two Oscar-winning documentaries, Hitler Lives and Design for Death. Geisel began writing the verses of his first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, in 1936 during a rough sea passage. Published a year later, the book won much acclaim, largely because of its unique drawings. All of Geisel's books, in fact, feature crazy-looking creatures that are sometimes based on real animals, but usually consist of such bizarre combinations of objects as a centipede and a horse and a camel with a feather duster on its head. Unlike many puppeteers and cartoonists who have capitalized on their creations by selling their most familiar images to big-time toymakers, though, Dr. Seuss concentrated his efforts on creating captivating books.

"Basically an Educator" Admired among fellow authors and editors for his honesty and hard work, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, according to Ruth MacDonald in the Chicago Tribune, "perfected the art of telling great stories with a vocabulary as small as sometimes 52 or 53 words." "[Geisel] was not only a master of word and rhyme and an original and eccentric artist," declared Gerald Harrison, president of Random House's merchandise division, in Publisher's Weekly, "but down deep, I think he was basically an educator. He helped teach kids that reading was a joy and not a chore.... For those of us who worked with him, he taught us to strive for excellence in all the books we published." Historical Context The Life and Times of Theodor Geisel (Dr.

Seuss) (1904-1991) At the time of Geisel's birth: Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States Marie Curie discovered radium British forces conquered northern Nigeria Texaco dug its first oil well At the time of Geisel's death: George Bush was president of the United States The Soviet Union was dissolved PanAm Airlines stopped operating Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted The times: 1983: American invasion of Grenada 1991: War against Iraq Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) Polish-born American writer Vladimir Horowitz (1904-1989) Russian-born pianist Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971) American photojournalist Deng Xiaoping (1904-) Chinese communist leader Selected world events: 1906: San Francisco earthquake killed thousands, destroyed city 1926: Fascist leader Benito Mussolini assumed power in Italy 1935: First canned beer--by Krueger Beer in New Jersey--hit the shelves 1954: Raymond A.

Kroc bought McDonald's hamburger stands and turned them into one of the largest franchises 1962: Cuban missile crisis sparked tense confrontation between United States and Soviet Union 1977: World's last case of smallpox was reported in Somalia 1984: Gas leak at Union Carbide factory in India killed 3,500 people Further Reading See Chicago Tribune, 9/26/91; Entertainment Weekly, 10/11/91; Los Angeles Times, 9/26/91; People, 10/7/91; Publishers Weekly, 10/25/91; and the Times (London) 9/27/91. Two biographies of Geisel have been published. The first, Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel by Judith and Neil Morgan (1995) is written in a tone of personal reminiscence. The second, Thomas Fensch's The Man Who Was Dr. Seuss: The Life and Work of Theodor Geisel is more of a straight-forward literary biograpy (2001).

Question: By what name is Theodor Geisel better known?
Answer: Dr Seuss