dr. seuss

For me, my favourite books as a child (and, indeed, as an adult) are those by Dr. Seuss. How many of us have failed to be enchanted by the Cat in the Hat or Yertle the Turtle?

Into a world of Crayola crayons, Dr. Seuss introduced an adventure of rhyme and image with the power to alleviate our boredom, challenge our imaginations, and even shape our young lives.

More than one hundred million Dr. Seuss books have been purchased by parents, grandparents, and children. Green Eggs and Ham is the third largest selling book in the English language. Ever. The Butter Battle Books, supposedly for children, set a world record by appearing for six months on the New York Times adult best-seller list. Dr. Seuss is definitely a house-hold name, but who was he?

Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1904, he was known as Theodor Geisel until he became involved in a minor infraction of the rules while attending Dartmouth College. To maintain his post as editor-in-chief of the college humour magazine, under the watchful eye of the dean, he began to sign his works with his middle name, Seuss. The title of doctor came later, after he dropped out of Oxford University. Not wanting to disappoint his father by arriving home without a doctorate, he simply annexed Dr. to his middle name - the name Dr. Seuss has been used by Theodor Geisel ever since. Dr. Seuss also used the anagram Theo. LeSieg for books such as "Would You Rather be a Bullfrog?" although these books are considered less desirable to collectors than Dr. Seuss titles.

Dr. Seuss claimed to be a self-taught artist and had a drawing lesson once. When he turned his paper upside down to study the composition, the teacher walked by and said, "Ted, real artists don't turn their paper upside down." He never returned to the class.

A visit to Dr. Seuss's studio was an instructive experience. He used to work in his home atop Mount Soledad, reached only by a narrow, winding road that has been under repair for "about a year."

The view is breathtaking and so are the curves, which could easily be found in the world of Seuss books. Some nearby trees are eucalyptus, while others are straight out of the pages of Solla Sollew. In fact, it's easy to imagine that everything in this remote world inspired a book; or the influence of the books is so pervasive that our perceptions of the real world are altered by them. "Good afternoon," says Dr. Seuss, appearing at the gate. "Don't trip over the cat. Its name is Thing One."

Dr. Seuss sadly died 24 September 1991. 

Biographical information extracted from 'Dr. Seuss from Then to Now'.

Contributed by Sonia Bryant

(Published 30th Sep 2013)