A Short Introduction to Dr. SeussDr. Sarah Keller

skeller@tntech.edu

"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... and that enables you to laugh at all of life's realities.”

THEODOR SEUSS GEISEL

The Basics:• Date of birth:March 2, 1904

• Place of birth:Springfield, Massachusetts

• Date of death:September 24, 1991

• Place of death:La Jolla, California

• Married to:

• Helen Palmer Geisel, 1927-1967

• Audrey Stone Geisel, 1968-1991

• Education:

• B.A., Dartmouth College, 1925

• Oxford University (no degree)

Awards & Recognition

• 3 Academy Award–winning films (1946; 1947; 1951)

• Peabody Award (animated specials, 1971)

• 2 Emmys (1977; 1982)• Legion of Merit• 3 Caldecott Honor Awards (1947; 1949;

1950)• Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters

from his alma mater, Dartmouth• Laura Ingalls Wilder Award (1980)• Pulitzer Prize (1984)• New York Library Literary Lion (1986)

Ted Geisel (Politics, imagination, & talent) = Dr. Seuss• Editor of Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern (first signed

his name “Seuss”)• Political cartoonist for Judge & Saturday Evening

Post• 15 years in advertising for Standard Oil (Quick

Henry, the Flit!)• WW II - Political cartoons for P.M.• 1942 - drew posters for Treasury Department

and War Production Board• Joined army in 1943 - commander of Animation

Dept of the first Motion Pictures Unit of the United States Army Air Forces.

The Political Dr. Seuss:Dr. Richard H. Minear (Professor at University of Massachusetts)

• Politics + Talent:• Springfield Library and Museum Association:

• Special Exhibition: The Political Dr. Seuss; March 11 through October 16, 2000

• “There is a disconnect between what we usually think of as Dr. Seuss and the content of the cartoons”

• 400 political cartoons included:• Sneetch-type character• Horton-esque elephants• Nizzard-like birds• Prototype of Yertle the Turtle

• Cartoons “lambasted” isolationism, racism, anti-Semitism, Hitler, Mussolini, the Japanese and the conservative forces in American Politics

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937)

Imagination + Talent:

• Written while traveling on luxury liner M. S. Kungsholm

• Rhythm of the engines led to the rhythm and rhymes of the book

• Rejected by 27 publishing companies• Friend at Vanguard (division of Houghton Mifflin)

showed manuscript and illustrations to decision-makers at Vanguard

• Book was well received by librarians and reviewers

“Like most works of merit, the works of Dr. Seuss have been over analyzed; many scholars have found devices where there are truly none to be found. For the most part, Ted enjoyed writing entertaining books that encouraged children to read.”

seussville.com

The Five Hundred Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1938)Bartholomew and the Oobleck (1949)

Combination of Politics, Imagination, Talent really begins:

• “500 Hats” questions the arbitrariness of power• Pits a simple but imaginative man

against an easily threatened king• Bartholomew returns in a second book to

save the kingdom from the threatening “oobleck” invented by the king’s magicians (again a misuse of the king’s power) and teaches an ecological lesson

Horton Hears a Who! (1954)

• An allegory or parable for the situation of Japan after Hiroshima - points to the potential dangers of people’s lack of imagination

• Began teaching tolerance to generations of kids - “A person’s a person, no matter how small”

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1957)Cat in the Hat (1957)• The cat’s famous red and white

striped hat has a political predecessor in the top hat worn by Uncle Sam in Seuss’s wartime cartoons

• Seuss’s personal values are also apparent in the Grinch, a warning against materialism (the Whos are in this one too!)

Yertle the Turtle and Other

Stories (1958) • “Yertle the Turtle”

• A cautionary tale against dictators• Dr. Seuss himself said that “Yertle” was

modeled after the rise of Hitler and explained his feelings about fascism and Nazis in particular.

• Two other stories in the book share the theme of vanity:• "Gertrude McFuzz" • "The Big Brag”

The Sneetches and Other Stories (1961)      • “The Sneetches” -

• A plea for racial tolerance• Parable for the cycle of fashion and how

snobbery and insecurity drive consumerism to consumers' own detriment

• “The Zax” • Can be seen as a parody of all political

hardliners• A lesson about the importance of

compromise. • "What Was I Scared Of?”

• Teaches the lesson that you should not be afraid of things with which you are not familiar.

I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew (1965)

• The hero of this hilarious tale discovers that in attempting to avoid trouble, one often encounters even greater difficulties.

The Lorax (1971)

• Contains a strong environmental message.

• Is said to have been Dr. Seuss's personal favorite among his books

Marvin K. Mooney, Will You Please Go Now! (1972)

• Not written as a “political” book• Political columnist Art Buchwald

criticized Ted for never having written a political book

• Seuss crossed out Marvin’s name and wrote “Richard M. Nixon”

The Butter Battle Book (1984)

• Perhaps the most controversial of his books

• Based on the Cold War and nuclear deterrence

• Remained for six months on The New York Times Bestseller List -- for adults.

Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (1990)

• The last book written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss

• The book is concerned with life and its challenges - meaningful to both adults and children

Daisy-Head Mayzie (1994)

• The tale of young Mayzie McGrew, who one day mysteriously sprouts a daisy from her head

• Mayzie learns the hard way that love is more important than fame and fortune.

Dr. Seuss & Reading

• The Cat in the Hat (1957)• Green Eggs and Ham

(1960)• Random House’s Beginner

Books division

Shortly before his death, whenTed was asked if there was anythingleft unsaid, he pondered the questionand finally responded:

“The best slogan I can think of to leave with the U.S.A. would be: ‘We can . . . and we’ve got to . . . do better than this.’”

References:

http://www.seussville.com/seussentennial/resources1.html

http://www.nea.org/readacross/resources/seussbiocomp.html

http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/1aa/1aa291.htm

Morgan, J. & Morgan, N. (1996). Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel. New York: Da Capo Press.

Krull, K. (2004). The boy on Fairfield Street: How Ted Geisel grew up to become Dr. Seuss. New York: Random House.