Brief Biography

Theodor Geisel better known as Dr. Seuss was born March 2, 1904 in Springfield MA. He left Springfield to attend Dartmouth College and from there he went on to Oxford University from which he did not receive a degree but irregardless of this he adopted the Dr. as part of his pseudonym.

As a young man he was interested in teaching and art. In his career he would combine these two interests to create distinctive children’s books. His books both aesthetic and efferent to child readers use unique words and cartoon illustrations, a style that has made him the best selling children’s author of all time.

Although, his early pursuits in advertising and drawing political cartoons were also quite successful, his real joy was writing for children. His first children’s book, And to think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street was published in 1937. Because it was unlike anything that had been written for children to that point it was rejected twenty seven times. Like his work, his commencement to children’s literature was serendipitous. After nearly giving up on his book, he happened to run into an old friend from Dartmouth on the street in Manhattan. This friend who worked for Vanguard Press saw the potential in Ted’s work and recommended it for publication. As he would later point out if he had walked on the other side of the street that day he would probably remained in advertising.

Early Sketch of The Cat

by Dr. Seuss

In 1957, Dr. Seuss changed children’s literacy with the introduction of The Cat In The Hat. At the time school children across the United States learned to read from primers widely known as Dick and Jane books. Using the same vocabulary Seuss created an engaging story that both entertained and instructed children. From this developed a fresh, new series of Beginner Books under the trademark I CAN READ IT ALL BY MYSELF. These continue to be among the first books a child will read alone.

While most prolific with these easy readers like, Green Eggs and Ham, One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish, Dr. Seuss continued to write what he called his “Big Books” including, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, The Lorax and his final composition Oh, The Places You’ll Go! He wrote and illustrated forty four children’s books before his death in 1991. At this time over 200 million copies of his books have been sold and translated into fifteen languages. Not only did he tackle children’s literacy but he managed to address important issues in his “Big Books” without preaching to his audience. These books examined among other things racism, consumerism, violence and the environment. His books appeared at a time when a whole generation of citizens was questioning the status quo and he provided children and parents with tricksters like The Cat who could rebel and still have time to clean up the mess before mom gets home. Yet, another reason most of today’s baby boomers have a favorite Dr. Seuss book.

Many think there was a bit of the Cat in his creator, in the introduction to the book The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss, Maurice Sendak suggests a connection in his description of Ted Geisel: “The Ted Geisel I knew was that rare amalgamation of genial gent and tomcat - a creature content with himself as animal and artist, and one who didn't give a lick or a spit for anyone's opinion, one way or another of his work.”

In a recently PBS aired documentary by Independent Lens entitled The Political Dr. Seuss the author confesses the following:

“I'm subversive as hell! I've always had a mistrust of adults. Hilaire Belloc, whose writings I liked a lot, was a radical. Gulliver's Travels was subversive, and both Swift and Voltaire influenced me. The Cat in the Hat is a revolt against authority, but it's ameliorated by the fact that the Cat cleans up everything in the end.”