About the great author and the Illustrator – Dr. Seuss

Born on 2^nd of March in the year of 1904, Dr. Seuss is an American poet, writer and also a popular cartoonist. He is most widely recognized for his children’s books that he usually writes under the pen name of Dr. Seuss or Rosetta Stone and also Theo LeSieg. In his lifetime he has published atleast 46 children books that are depicted with imaginative characters and Dr. Seuss is known for using rhymes in his books that usually trisyllabic. His best books include Green Eggs and Ham, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and also The Cat in the Hat. There are a number of adaptations of his work like for instance there are about eleven television shows and four feature films and also a popular Broadway musical program in his stories. In the year 1958, Dr. Seuss was awarded the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award for his book Horton Hatches the Egg. He also won this award for the second time in the year 1961.

Quick Facts:

• Nick name: Dr. Seuss
• Date of birth: 2^nd March, 1904
• Place of birth: Springfield, Massachusetts
• Origin: United States
• Profession: Author, Illustrator, Publisher, Cartoonist, artist and an animator.
• Known for: His books such as The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham as these are the best-selling books of this author around the world.
• Website: http://www.seussville.com/

Childhood and growing up years:

Theodor Seuss Geisel popularly known by his pen name Dr. Seuss was born on 2^nd of March in the year 1904 in Springfield located in Massachusetts in United States. He was born to the couple Theodor Robert and Henrietta Geisel and his father was the son of a German immigrant and used to look after the family brewery and after a few years supervised it. In the year 1925, Seuss attended the Dartmouth College in which he joined the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and he was also a part of the humor magazine which was known as Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern for which he gradually became a chief editor after gaining experience. During his college education at Dartmouth, Seuss along with nine of his other friends was caught indulging themselves in drinking gin and as a result of this misbehavior he was asked to resign from all extracurricular activities by the Dean of the college, Craven Laycock including the humor magazine. As he was restricted by writing in the Jack-o-Lantern, without the knowledge of the administration, he started writing his works under the pen name “Seuss”. His first work which was signed under this name was published after he was graduated and six months later while he was working on The Jude, his weekly feature Birdies and Beasties was published. It was indeed his rhetoric professor W. Benfield Pressey who encouraged Seuss to start writing as he had big inspirations of writing during his studies at Dartmouth. After graduating from the Dartmouth college, he enrolled himself in the Lincoln College, Oxford where he studied to acquire a Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of English literature. It was at this university that he met his future wife, Helen Palmer to whom he was married to in the year 1927 and then relocated to United States without having earned a degree.

Claim to fame:

By the year of 1925, he started writing funny articles and also illustrations for Liberty, Vanity Fair, Life and also The Judge. It was in the year 1927 on July 16^th that The Saturday Evening Post published his first cartoon post under his pen name Seuss and with this he became famous nationally because of his advertisements that he wrote for Flit, which was a common insecticide at that time. The slogan written by him “Quick, Henry, the Flit!” became a popular catchphrase and throughout his works he was greatly supported by his wife. He also drew an advertisement the Great Depression for the General Electric, Standard Oil and also the NBC. In the year of 1935, he drew and wrote a short-live comic strip which was titled as Hejji. In the year 1937 while he was returning from his ocean voyage to Europe, the rhythm of the engine of the ship inspired his poem which he included his first book known as And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. However, this book was rejected twenty-seven times but later on became one of his popular books. This was followed by his three more books that he wrote for children before he left for United States to take part in the World War II.

When the World War II began, Seuss now focused his work political cartooning and he drew over 400 drawings in just a span of two years time as part of his editorial cartoonist post in the left-leaning New York City daily newspaper. These political cartoons were later on published in Dr. Seuss Goes to War that denounced by Hitler and Mussolini. These drawings were greatly criticized for being non-interventional especially by Charles Lindbergh who opposed the US entry into the World War.

One notable cartoon of Seuss is the one that depicts all Japanese Americans as fifth-columnists and at the same time it was deplores racism in the homeland against the Blacks and the Jews which harmed the war. Dr. Seuss cartoons are strongly in favor of President Roosevelt who was taking care of the war while combining the exhortations to contribute to the efforts of the war and also being able to cope with the frequent attacks from the Congress.

In the year 1942, Seuss turned his work to support directly the war efforts of the US and for this purpose he first worked on drawing posters for the War Production Board and also the Treasury Department. Then in the year 1943, he finally joined the Army and served as the Captain and was also the commander in the Animation Department for the United States Army Air Forces. During his job in the army he wrote a number of films few of which are Your Job in Germany which was set in the 1945 era and was based on the propaganda about bringing about peace in the country of Europe after the World War II. Another movie that he wrote was Our Job in Japan and also the Private Snafu which were in series based on the adult training lives in the army. While he was serving the army, Dr. Seuss was awarded with the Legion of Merit. The film that he wrote Our Job in Japan had become the basis for a commercial release film which was titled as Design for Death and was released in the year 1947. The following year, the couple relocated their living to La Jolla which is located in California. He returned back to write books for children and books such as If I Ran the Zoo, If I Ran the Circus and Horton Hears a Who! became hot favorites with children and he also wrote a fantasy and musical film known as The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T which was released in the year 1953. This movie however was a critical one but it had seen a financial failure and after this, Seuss never attempted to write another feature film. In 1950, he published numerous illustrated short stories which were majorly published in the Redbook magazine. A number of them form these volumes have also been reprinted since their original publications for their popularity.

Further, he went on to write a number of children’s books that comprises of both his simplified vocabulary language and also in his elaborate style. The Beginner books wrote by him were not easy and it took him years to complete the books. In the year 1967 on October 23^rd after suffering from the illness of cancer coupled by the emotional pain by her husband’s affair with Audrey Stone Diamond, Seuss wife Helen Palmer committed suicide. The following year Seuss married Audrey on June 21^st although he devoted most of his time to writing children’s books while he had no children of his own.

Dr. Seuss also known as Geisel died of throat cancer in the year 1991 on September 24^th after struggling of poor health for several years in the city of San Diego in California. The body of Seuss was cremated where his ashes were scattered. Four years after the death of this great American author and cartoonist, on December 1^st 1995 University Library Building was renamed on Seuss as Geisel Library. This was done in honor and respect of Geisel and his wife Audrey for their generous contributions that they had made towards the library and also their dedication in improving the literacy.

Presently:

In the year 2002, Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden was opened that comprises of sculptures done by Geisel combined with many of his characters. In the year 2008, the California then President Arnold Schwarzenegger and the first lady Maria Shriver made an announcement that Dr. Seuss would be introduced into the California Hall of Fame which was located in The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. This induction ceremony took place on 15^th December. On March 2^nd 2009, the most popular web search engine Google changed its logo temporarily in honor and to mark the birthday of Geisel.

In his entire career, he wrote about 60 books which were published under his well-known pen name Dr. Seuss. He is also known for authoring a dozen books as Rosetta Stone. His books had topped the list of bestsellers and at a time about 222 million copies would be sold. His stories were translated in about fifteen languages. At time she also wrote books for adults by making use of the similar style of pictures and verses. Some of the famous adults written by him were The Seven Lady Godivas and You’re Old only Once! The last book written before his death was Oh, The Places You’ll Go! this became a popular gift for graduating students. His characters and books are also featured in Seuss landing. The most famous Hollywood Reporter has reported that the popular artist Johnny Depp has agreed to produce a film based on Dr. Seuss and might also feature himself in the movie. The film is written by Keith Bunin and would be producing along with Illumination Entertainment which would be distributed by Universal Pictures.

Awards and Nominations Received:

In the year of 1978, Dr. Seuss won the Emmy award for his book The Hoober-Blood Highway in the category of Outstanding Children’s Special. This was his second Emmy award as he won his first Emmy Award in the year of 1982 for his book The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat in the category of Outstanding Animated Program. Then in the year of 2004 he was also awarded with the Start of the Walk of Fame award in the category of Motion Picture.

Dr. Seuss has also been nominated to a number of awards such as the Emmy Awards and the Annie Awards in his careers.

Personal Quotes:

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…”

“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!”

“You’re off to Great Places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting,

So… get on your way!”

“When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle’s on a poodle and the poodle’s eating noodles…they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle
bottle paddle battle.”

“So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. And remember that life’s A Great Balancing Act. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed) Kid, you’ll move mountains.”