dr. seuss and mr. geisel

i really enjoy the work of dr. seuss.
i often use his books as teaching tools in my messages, and jane loves to read his stories as well. lately she has been enjoying the book and cartoon of “how the Grinch stole christmas.” i wanted to learn more about dr. seuss, so i picked up a biography on him called “dr. seuss and mr. Geisel” by Judith and neil morgan- and i learned some fascinating things about his life and work. here are some of those ideas:

:: dr. seuss’ name is not actually dr. seuss. he wasn’t a doctor, and his last name wasn’t seuss. his name was theodor seuss Geisel. he also wrote under the name theo LeSeig; which is Geisel spelled backwards. he was german, so his middle name was actually pronounced “zoice,” not “soose.”

:: when Geisel was a teenager, he was on stage to receive a boy scout honor from teddy Roosevelt. for some reason, Roosevelt didn’t have an award for him and ted was humiliated. he suffered from debilitating stage fright for the rest of his life.

:: seuss grew up in springfield Massachusetts, near a busy street called mulberry street; his first book was called “and to think that i saw it on mulberry street.” he father worked at a zoo; suess later wrote a book called, “if i ran the zoo.” many of his books and characters were inspired by real life situations and people that he experienced.

:: seuss didn’t start writing books right away; he got started making cartoons for magazines and ads. this later evolved into a fairly successful career drawing political cartoons. his cartoons were meant to encourage the US to get into WWII and join the fight against germany and japan.

:: ted later joined the army and worked in the Hollywood division. he created a series of training cartoons about a character named private snafu. he created these with bugs bunny creator, chuck jones. they would later collaborate on the cartoon version of the Grinch.

:: seuss eventually became a very famous children’s writer. at the time, the only things for kids to read was “fun with dick and jane.” dr. seuss was much more fun. his most successful book was “green eggs and ham.” the only book that he worte that did not rhyme was “and to think that i saw it on mulberry street.” after that, they all rhymed.

:: even though seuss wrote for children, he never had any of his own. he actually did not consider himself a children’s writer. he didn’t seem to care much who read his books- he wrote what interested him.

:: one of his early works was adapted into a film called “the 5000 fingers of dr. t.” it was a complete flop; for the rest of his life he had a fear of failure that drove him to perfection.

:: seuss spent that majority of his life in la jolla, ca. he lived in a lookout tower that was converted into a home. his office/ studio was at the very top and it had giant windows that overlooked the beach and ocean. he worked up in his towers until 2am every night. there is now a very cool Geisel library at UC san diego which has a dr. seuss statue out front, and a room that preserves his original drawings.

:: dr. seuss had an interesting writing process. he almost always started with an image and then told a story about it. e would get his characters into situations and then have them find their way out. he never seemed to know how the books would end. it took him weeks to figure out how the Grinch and Horton would end. when seuss wrote “Horton hatches the egg,” he had a picture of a tree and a picture of an elephant on separate pieces of tracing paper. the wind from his window blew the picture of the elephant on top of the picture of the tree and seuss began writing by asking, “how did that elephant get up in that tree? and why is he up there anyhow?”

:: my favorite seuss book, “oh the places you’ll go!” was his last. he seemed to know it was his last, because he put little tributes to his previous work in the drawings. if you look hard enough, you’ll find yertle the turtle and Horton the elephant, as well as some animals originally used in his political cartoons. the book began when ted had a series of unused drawing that he wanted to incorporate into a story. he tacked them to a wall, and the story came to life.

:: i think my favorite story from the book came from his first story, “and to think that i saw it on mulberry street.” Geisel took a big risk in writing a children’s book, and he wasn’t sure if anyone would like it. and unfortunately, no one did. at the time, all children’s books had a moral to them, and this one didn’t. ted Geisel went to twenty seven publishing houses with his book and was rejected by all 27. after the 27th rejection, he headed for home with the intention of burning his book. on his way home, he bumped into an old friend who just happened to be a publisher. his friend said, “what do you have there?” and seuss answered, “a book that no one wwill publish. I’m lugging it home to burn.” his friend loved it, and a career in children’s books was born. he later said, “if i had been walking down the other side of Madison avenue that day, i’d be in the dry cleaner business now.”

the guy was kind of quirky, but what else would you expect? what a great example of someone who uses their creativity and skill to inspire and encourage so many. i’ll close out this post the same way that seuss closed out his writing career, with the final words of “oh the places you’ll go:”

“So...
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!”