seuss

facts

Theodor Seuss

Geisel

Illustrator

Author

March 2, 1904

Springfield, Massachusetts

Did you know…. Dr. Seuss made up names of most of his animal creatures. In fact, he said he had a special dictionary he used to look up the spellings. However when it came to making up the names of people in his stories, this fun-loving author often used the names of real people. Horton was named after a classmate at Dartmouth College. Resource: Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) biography, by Tanya Dean

Did you know… Several of Dr. Seuss’s famous animals first appeared on magazine covers, in advertisements, or in cartoons. The March 23, 1929 cover of Judge magazine featured two lovable creatures. A kind looking elephant, jumping over a big hippopotamus, bears a strong resemblance to Horton, the loyal egg-hatcher. Resource: Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) biography, by Tanya Dean

Ted Geisel was often asked to speak to groups or sign copies of his books. He loved the idea! Unfortunately he struggled with stage fright most of his life.

Resource: Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) biography, by Tanya Dean

Did you know… Dr. Seuss loved to do the illustrations for his books. For the first time, in McElligot’s Pool, Ted used watercolors. The colors were so unusual and varied that the publishing company said it would cost too much to print it that way. Not one to let that stop him, he offered a compromise. Every other two-page spread is completely black and white. It cut the color cost in half and Ted kept his watercolors where he most wanted them.

Resource: Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) biography, by Tanya Dean

Resource: Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) biography, by Tanya Dean

Did you know… Ted struggled to write his thirteenth children’s book. As he looked at the list of words that William Spaulding of Houghton Mifflin had given him, Ted cried to his wife, Helen, “There are no adjectives!” He decided he would start make a title from the first two words on the list. Those two words were cat and hat. The Cat in the Hat had a title, but the story took a year to complete.

Did you know… Ted Geisel used exactly 50 different words in Green Eggs and Ham. To keep track of this, he made huge charts and lists as he worked on the story. Only one word in the entire book had more than one syllable-anywhere-and he used it only eight times.

Resource: Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) biography, by Tanya Dean

President of Random House's Beginner Books Division-1957

Class of 1925 at Dartmouth College

He drew cartoons for magazines-1928

Did you know….

When the book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street

became available to the public in 1937, the people of Springfield, Massachusetts, were a little concerned. Unsure of what the book was really about, some of the townspeople were afraid that the book was going to tell personal, even embarrassing, stories about some of them who actually lived on Mulberry Street.

Resource: Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) biography, by Tanya Dean

Last book You’re Only Old Once

Dr. Seuss worked on a TV adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas with Chuck Jones in 1966.

Ted works on adapting the book Horton Hears a Who for television, it airs on Thanksgiving 1967

March 2, 1904- September 24, 1991