THE DOCTOR IS IN!
Dr. Seuss was born
Theodor Seuss Geisel in Springfield, Massachusetts, on March 2, 1904. His father was a brewmaster. His mother used to sing him to sleep with rhymes, planting the seeds which would grow into Giesel's many rhyming stories.
After graduating from Dartmouth in 1925, he went to Oxford and met Helen Palmer, whom he wed in 1927. Upon his return to America later that year, Geisel published cartoons and humorous articles in major magazines such as Life, Vanity Fair, and Liberty.
Geisel wrote his first children's book, "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street," in 1936. He created the elephant character HORTON for 1940's "Horton Hatches the Egg." During World War II, Geisel joined the Army and was sent to Hollywood, where he created an Oscar-winning
cartoon titled "Gerald McBoing-Boing."
After his first wife died in 1967, Giesel married Audrey Stone. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 and three Academy Awards, Geisel authored and illustrated 44 children's books. Theodor Geisel aka Dr. Seuss passed away on September 24, 1991.
SECRET ORIGINS of
THE CAT IN THE HAT and HORTON
In 1954, Geisel's publisher sent Geisel a list of 400 words he felt were important for children to learn. The publisher asked the author to cut the list to 250 words and use them to write an entertaining children's book. Nine months later, Geisel, using 220 of the words given to him, published
The Cat in the Hat.
How did
"Horton Hears A Who!" come about? During World War II, Giesel's drew numerous political cartoons demonizing the German and the Japanese wartime leaders. Pictured below are three World War II era cartoons by Giesel, who signed them using his famous "Dr. Seuss" pen name.
