| Yes, Dr Seuss was a real person though his name | | | | The success of "The Cat in the Hat" elevated Dr |
| was Theodor Seuss Geisel and he was called Ted. He | | | | Seuss from a pioneer in the field of writing and |
| wrote over 40 children's books and all of them | | | | illustrating children's books to a respected authority, a |
| remain popular to this day because he made reading | | | | position he has held ever since. His book "Green Eggs |
| such fun. His success is attributed to his controlled | | | | and Ham" came about when his publisher, Bennet |
| use of vocabulary, simple text, humour, repetition, | | | | Cerf wagered that he couldn't write a book using 50 |
| rhyme, his choice of words, imaginative illustrations | | | | words or less! Cerf had the vision to see that Ted |
| and original characters. The books teach the skills | | | | was going to turn the children's book world upside |
| that young readers need and inspire them to | | | | down and he created Beginner Books. His relationship |
| continue their reading journey. | | | | with Dr Seuss as publisher and close friend lasted |
| Theodor Geisel first wrote under the name Seuss | | | | many years. |
| when he was a student at Dartmouth College. A | | | | Ted, or Dr Seuss as we think of him, enjoyed writing |
| party thrown by Ted and his friends resulted in Ted | | | | entertaining books that encouraged children to read. |
| being asked to give up all his extra-curricular activities. | | | | However he was also concerned with moral and |
| He was editor-in-Chief of the College's humour | | | | environmental issues and his book "The Lorax" has |
| magazine at the time, so to continue to contribute to | | | | the theme of someone building a profitable business |
| the Jack-o-Lantern without the administration's | | | | for themselves at the expense of a natural resource |
| knowledge, he began signing his work with the | | | | and those who depended on it for their survival. |
| pen-name Seuss (which was his mother's maiden | | | | Ted loved funny hats. He would wear them when he |
| name as well as his middle name). | | | | had writer's block and often also at dinner parties at |
| After Dartmouth, Ted went to Oxford and it was | | | | his home. If guests didn't arrive wearing one, they |
| during one of his classes there that his doodling | | | | were loaned one from Ted's collection! |
| caught the eye of a fellow American student named | | | | Dr Seuss received many honours for his work, not |
| Helen Palmer and she suggested that he should | | | | least a Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, given to an author |
| become an artist instead of a professor. He found | | | | or illustrator whose books have made a substantial |
| that he liked her advice and began to work as a | | | | contribution to and lasting impact on children's |
| cartoonist. (He liked more than her advise because | | | | literature. |
| they later married!) | | | | Over the course of his long career, Ted Geisel wrote |
| Ted worked in advertising for 15 years but was a | | | | over 40 books, mostly under the name Dr Seuss, but |
| regular contributor to humour magazines, writing | | | | over a dozen as Theo. LeSieg and one as Rosetta |
| under the name Dr Seuss. With the arrival of World | | | | Stone. Nearly 30 of his Dr Seuss books have been |
| War II, Ted sought a commission with naval | | | | adapted for television or video. |
| intelligence where he made animated movies relevant | | | | At the time of his death in September 1991, 200 |
| to the war effort. | | | | million copies of his books, translated into 15 different |
| In the latter years of the war, he began writing | | | | languages had been sold and sales continue to climb |
| children's stories, beginning with "And to Think That I | | | | as children (and adults) the world over discover and |
| Saw it on Mulberry Street". | | | | re-discover his delightful tales and at the same time |
| His turning point came when he was asked to write a | | | | learn important lessons in tolerance because, despite |
| children's primer using 220 new-reader vocabulary | | | | their differences, all of his characters are portrayed |
| words. While schools were reluctant to adopt "The | | | | as being just as important as any other, as he says |
| Cat in the Hat" as an official primer, children and | | | | "A person's a person, no matter how small" (from |
| adults showed no such restraint and clamoured for | | | | Horton Hears a Who). |
| copies. | | | | Thank you Dr Seuss! |