Theodor Seuss Geisel affectionately known to the world as Dr Seuss was a children’s book author who was born in the United States of America on March 2 1904. To those who knew him he was simply Ted. Seuss credits his mother Henrietta for his wonderful stories as she would chant rhymes to her children before they went to sleep and it was what drove him to write and illustrate stories of his own as he grew older.
Public appearances scared Seuss as a boy after a wee run in with the then President of the United States President Roosevelt and as a result he suffered stage fright. The New England Historical Society explains.
“Young Ted Geisel belonged to Boy Scout Troop 13, which undertook a war bond drive. He walked from house to house selling war bonds. His grandfather, a well-to-do brewer, bought $1,000 worth of bonds from his grandson. That made Ted one of the top-selling Scouts in Springfield.
Ted and nine other Scouts were to receive an award from former President Theodore Roosevelt in May 1918. They lined up on the state of Springfield’s Municipal Auditorium awaiting their award. Ted was last.
Roosevelt handed each boy an award – and then he got to Ted. Someone had made a mistake and given the former president only nine awards. It was an embarrassing situation, and Roosevelt made it worse. “What’s this boy doing here?” he said loudly. Ted, mortified, was hustled off the stage” (Teddy Roosevelt Humiliates Dr. Seuss, http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/teddy-roosevelt-humiliates-dr-seuss/, 2014).
Seuss’s catchphrases and success as an author often saw the public refer to him as ‘mad’ or a ‘mad man’ due to his antics that he would illustrate or write about. Seuss however went through 27 publishers before his manuscript for And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street was published. During WW2 he served as a captain in the U.S. Army. He then went on to write over 60 books and four were made into movies.
Although Seuss had no children of his own, he married twice and was a step father to two. His first wife committed suicide after a battle with Guilian Barre syndrome that became worse over a decade and he married his wife’s close friend till his death.
Robert Chase Jnr. the publisher of the book The Art of Dr. Seuss quoted
“Indeed, what Walt Disney was to entertainment, Theodor Seuss Geisel was to art and literature”.
Seuss died aged 87 on 24 September 1991.
Seuss books in my home
And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street
The Cat and the Hat
Green Eggs and Ham
Oh, the Places you will Go