Theodor Seuss Geisel
Since tomorrow marks the 115th birthday of the iconic children's book author Dr. Seuss - Theodor Seuss Geisel - I thought it only fitting to feature him as a Champion of Creativity. After all, he, more than most authors, artists, etc., is worthy of that title!
After researching the extraordinary life of Theodor Seuss Geisel, it's become apparent to me that the volume of his publications and awards are beyond anything I can come close to addressing in this small blog post. Therefore, I'll share just some of the highlights from this remarkable man's life and long career that resonated with me.
He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 2, 1904 to parents of German descent. After the onset of World War I both he and his sister Marnie experienced anti-German prejudice from the children in their lives. (Later in life, he would adopt strong liberal views.)
Theodor attended Dartmouth College where his writing skills were put to good use in the humor magazine, Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern. After graduating from Dartmouth, he moved to England where he attended Oxford University. It was there, that he met his future wife, Helen Palmer. Although Theodor desired to earn his doctorate in literature and become an English teacher, Helen encouraged him to find a profession that would also utilize his drawing skills; she'd been most impressed by the animal drawings in his numerous notebooks. So he left Oxford without earning his doctorate and began sending his writings and drawings to magazines and advertisement agencies. After earning enough money to convince himself that he could make a career as a writer, he moved back to the United States with Helen, where they were subsequently married.
Theodor and Helen settled in New York City, where he continued writing, primarily for the humor magazine Judge, which established his career. It was in a 1927 article in Judge where Theodor Seuss Geisel first used the pen name of Dr. Seuss. In 1931 Dr. Seuss illustrated a children's book, Boners - a collection of children's sayings. In 1936, while he and Helen were on a cruise, the ship's engines inspired a poem that would become the first children's book he would write and illustrate: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. However, according to a variety of accounts, prior to the publication of his book, Geisel received somewhere between 20 and 43 rejections! In fact, while he was walking home to burn the manuscript he ran into an old Dartmouth classmate, which led to the book's publication by Vanguard Press. (I love anecdotes like that!) Following that book, he wrote four more children's books before the onset of World War II.
Leading up to World War II, Dr. Seuss wrote many political cartoons. He was a staunch supporter of FDR, and subsequently entered the U.S. Army in 1943 as a Captain. He became the head of the Animation and Film Department for the U.S. Government where he wrote several films, some of them propaganda. Design for Death was one of his war films; it won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
After the war, Theodor and Helen moved to La Jolla, California - that is when his career as a children's book author/illustrator really took off. Books like: The Cat in the Hat (1957); How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1957); Green Eggs and Ham (1960), are just a few of the sixty books that Dr. Seuss wrote and illustrated in his lifetime.
Theodor Seuss Geisel died on September 24, 1991, at the age of 87.
Dr. Seuss received far too many awards to mention in full, here are just a few:
Dartmouth College awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1956, thus making his pen name legitimate.
Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for his "contribution over nearly half a century to the education and enjoyment of America's children and their parents."
On 2004 U.S. children's librarians established the annual Theodor Seuss Geisel Award to recognize the most distinguished American book for beginning readers published in English in the U.S. during the preceding year.
Two Emmy Awards.
Two Academy Awards.
A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Geisel's birthday, March 2, has been adopted as the annual date for National Read Across America Day, an initiative on reading that was created by the National Education Association.
Let's all celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss by reading a book!
