MARY BRASWELL: A look back at the much-loved Dr. Seuss

Each week Albany Herald researcher Mary Braswell looks for interesting events, places and people from the past. You can contact her at (229) 888-9371 or [email protected].

In celebration of the birthday of one of the most-loved children’s authors in history, here is a look back at the life and writings of Theodor Seuss Geisel, best known as Dr. Seuss. Tomorrow is the day to join classrooms everywhere for “Read Across America” for just such a celebration!

THE EARLY YEARS

—Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, Mass., to Theodor Robert and Henrietta Seuss Geisel on March 2, 1904. All of his grandparents were German immigrants. His father managed the family brewery until Prohibition shut it down, at which time he took the job of superintendent for the public park system.

— Geisel graduated from Springfield Central High School in 1921. As a freshman, he took an art class. Later, he was the manager of the soccer team.

— Geisel went on to college at Dartmouth, where he joined the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and the humor magazine Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, of which he became the editor-in-chief.

— While attending Dartmouth, Geisel and nine friends were caught drinking gin in his room. The punishment was that all 10 resign from any and all extracurricular activities. To keep drawing for the school magazine, Geisel began signing his work “Seuss.”

— Seuss attended Oxford University, but instead of getting a Ph.D. in English literature, he met his wife-to-be, Helen Palmer, and returned home. The couple married in 1927 and moved to New York City.

— Seuss’s first job as married man was as a writer and illustrator at the humor magazine Judge. The first work he signed as “Dr. Seuss” was published in that magazine in the spring of 1928. About the same time, one of his cartoons mentioned Flit, a common bug spray at the time.

— Standard Oil of New Jersey owned Flit and hired Seuss for advertising design. His first Flit ad ran May 31, 1928. “Quick, Henry, the Flit” was a catchphrase that not only sold the product, but gave Seuss a bit of notoriety. The product ads continued until 1941. His work soon began to also appear in Liberty, Vanity Fair and Life.

— Throughout the Great Depression, he supported himself and his wife by drawing ads for Narragansett Brewing Co., Standard Oil, General Electric, NBC and other companies. Advertising was the bread and butter for Seuss and his wife until “Cat in the Hat” came along in 1957.

THE WAR YEARS

— Seuss turned to political cartoons with the onset of World War II. As the editorial cartoonist for the left-leaning NYC daily newspaper, PM, he drew over 400 such cartoons in two years.

— Many of Seuss’s cartoons were denouncements of Hitler and Mussolini. He was also highly critical of non-interventionists, most notably Charles Lindberg.

— In 1942 Seuss began drawing posters for the Treasury Department and the War Production Board.

— Theodor Seuss Geisel joined the Army in 1942 as a captain and was commander of the Animation Department of the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Forces. Among his works were “Our Job in Japan” and “Your Job in Germany.” “Private Snafu” was a series of adult training films made to teach by negative example.

— After the war ended, Seuss and his wife moved to La Jolla, Calif., where the couple remained for the rest of their lives. Many of the Dr. Seuss classics were written at this residence.

BOOKS AND MORE BOOKS

— Dr. Seuss’ first published book, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” was rejected 20 times before it was published in 1937. There was, by the way, a Mulberry Street less than a mile from his boyhood home.

— “The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins” (1938) was inspired by Seuss’s growing collection of hats.

— “McElligot’s Pool” (1947) was Dr. Seuss’s first post-war book and also the first with a collection of fantastical animals.

— The word “nerd” was introduced in “If I Ran the Zoo” (1950).

— Inspired by a trip to Japan the previous year, Dr. Seuss published “Horton Hears a Who” in 1954. The story has been described as “a rhymed lesson in protection of minorities and their rights.”

— The year 1957 was one that made history in children’s literature. Both “The Cat in the Hat” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” were published that year.

— Random House’s Beginner Books series was launched in 1958 with “The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.”

— On a wager by his publisher that he could not write a complete book with 50 or fewer words, Dr. Seuss won the bet with”Green Eggs and Ham” in 1960. The book contains exactly 50 words and is his best-selling book ever.

— Dr. Seuss’ first book of tongue twisters was “Fox in Socks” (1965).

— “The Cat in the Hat Songbook” was published in 1967. Its low sales made it his only children’s book allowed to go out of print.

— Jumping ahead to 1984, noted author Judy Blume said this about “The Butter Battle Book”: “If this book was required reading for all governments, we would have a chance for world peace.” For this work, Dr. Seuss won the Pulitzer Prize.

— Published in 1990, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” sells about 300,000 copies every year as gifts for high school and college graduates.

THIS ‘N’ THAT

— Dr. Seuss and his wife Helen never had any children. He once said, “You make ‘em, I amuse ‘em.”

— Under the name Theo LeSieg (Geisel spelled backwards) , Dr. Seuss published many beginning readers.

— Dr. Seuss found the famous Dick and Jane primers to be extremely boring, a belief that led to “The Cat in the Hat” and many other early readers.

— In his 1958 “Yertle the Turtle” Dr. Seuss said that Yertle was indeed a representation of Hitler. Random House took no issue with that, but was concerned with Mack’s burp. Up to this point, no one had let loose a burp in a children’s book and it was considered a bit dicey. The burp was allowed to remain.

— Dr. Seuss was fond of felines, both real and imagined. He considered his donation to the San Diego Wild Animal Park one of his greatest accomplishments. The money was used to construct a wading pool for the lions.

IN HIS OWN WORDS …

“Children want the same things we want … to laugh, to be challenged, to be entertained and delighted.”

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

“Adults are just outdated children.”

“To the world you may be one person; but to one person you may be the world.”

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.”

My personal favorite: “If I were invited to a dinner party with my characters, I wouldn’t show up.”