Oh, wow, what an author!
Oh my, what a guy!
His rhymes are terrific;
Please let me say why.
You can’t find a thoozle just shopping downtown,
When you ask the nice sales clerk, he’ll give you a frown.
But open a book by this wizard named Seuss –
Out from the pages come thoozles let loose!
They’re big and they’re furry, they’re lovely and green –
Why, these are the best thoozles I’ve ever seen
And to think that I would have missed every one
If I had not picked up this book full of fun.
Theodore Giesel, or Ted, is better known to his reading public as Dr. Seuss. Born March 2, 1904 in Springfield, MA, he started out his career magazine working for a magazine called Judge, a popular humor magazine at the time, creating cartoons and humorous articles for them. At the same time, he was submitting cartoons to Life, Vanity Fair and Liberty. He wanted to write children’s books, and tried to find a publisher for “To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” but couldn’t find any takers.
The website seuss.org tells the next chapter in Ted’s story: “In May of 1954, Life published a report concerning illiteracy among school children. The report said, among other things, that children were having trouble to read because their books were boring. This inspired Geisel’s publisher, and prompted him to send Geisel a list of 400 words he felt were important, asked him to cut the list to 250 words (the publisher’s idea of how many words at one time a first grader could absorb), and write a book. Nine months later, Geisel, using 220 of the words given to him published “The Cat in the Hat,” which went on to instant success.
In 1960 Bennett Cerf bet Geisel $50 that he couldn’t write an entire book using only fifty words. The result was “Green Eggs and Ham.” Cerf never paid the $50, btw…”
His books skyrocketed from there. I can think of no other children’s author more known or who has done more for children’s literacy. With an unheard of combination of magical creatures and repetitive rhyme, Dr. Seuss did for young readers what Dick and Jane had tried to do and failed miserably. Books were suddenly fun. Children wanted to read. Adults wanted to sit down and read too, appreciating the imagination that went into creating these characters and setting them to clever rhymes. Parents began sitting up to read bedtime stories long after their children had gone to bed. If you ask parents what their favorite Seuss book is, they’ll give you an answer, and it’s usually a personal one. I have yet to hear a parent say that they don’t like Dr. Seuss. That great dreamer died on the 24th of September, 1991, leaving a legacy that can’t possibly be equaled.
Thank you for reading about this great man,
I hope you’ll return sometime soon, if you can.
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