[2003-12-16] DR. SEUSS -- THERE IS FUN TO BE DONE by Pam North This Christmas season features a newly-released movie called The Cat in the Hat, with another past holiday film, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, surfacing again as well. Both were inspired by the charming books by Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to the world as the beloved Dr. Seuss, who has delighted millions worldwide with his fanciful and often surreal worlds in which moral and social tales unfold with catchy rhymes and imaginative illustrations. Geisel was born on March 2, 1904 to a prosperous family in Springfield, Massachusetts. His father, Theodor Robert, was the curator of the Forest Park Zoo. His mother, Henrietta Seuss Geisel, often amused her children by chanting rhymes remembered from her youth, and Geisel has credited her as his inspiration for the catchy phrases that pepper his books. Geisel and his sister, Marnie, had a happy childhood, and the influence of his memories of Springfield is evident throughout his work. Geisel left Springfield to attend Dartmouth College, where he became editor-in-chief of the Jack-O-Lantern, Dartmouth's humor magazine. His tenure as editor ended abruptly when he and his friends were caught throwing a drinking party (against Prohibition laws and school policy) but he continued to contribute to the magazine, signing his work "Seuss." After his graduation from Dartmouth in 1925, Geisel went on to Oxford University in England with the intent of acquiring a doctorate in literature. He found Oxford's academic studies boring,and decided to tour Europe instead, but the university did provide him the opportunity to meet a classmate, Helen Palmer, who not only became his first wife in 1927 but also a children's author and book editor. Geisel returned to the United States in 1927 and began working for Judge, the leading humor magazine in America at that time, submitting both cartoons and humorous articles. He also submitted cartoons to Life, Vanity Fair, Liberty and the Saturday Evening Post. Some of his early pieces were published, but the bulk of Geisel's activity during his early career was devoted to creating advertising campaigns for Standard Oil for an insecticide called Flit. As World War II approached, Geisel was determined to be part of the war effort. He joined the Army and was sent to Hollywood, where he wrote for Frank Capra's Signal Corps Unit (for which he won the Legion of Merit) and did documentaries. He was introduced there to the art of animation, developing a series of training films featuring a trainee called Private Snafu. He also created a cartoon called Gerald McBoingBoing, which won him an Oscar. While continuing to contribute to various magazines, he was offered a contract by Viking Press to illustrate a collection of children's sayings called Boners. The book was not a commercial success, but the illustrations received great reviews, providing Geisel with his first break into children's literature. In 1936, en route to a vacation on Europe, he came up with the first book that he both wrote and illustrated, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. He used the pen name Dr. Seuss (his father had wanted him to become a doctor), intending to keep his real name for more serious work. It took persistence to get his book published, however; it was rejected as too outlandish to appeal to children by the first 27 publishers to which he submitted it, but eventually it was accepted by Random House in 1937. In May of 1954, Life magazine published a report concerning illiteracy among school children, and cited as a major contribution to the reading problems of children was the fact that their books were boring. This inspired Geisel's publisher to send him a list of 400 words, requesting Geisel to cut the list to 250 words (the publisher's idea of how many words at one time a first grader could absorb)and use them to write a book. Nine months later, Geisel, using 223 of the words, completed a funny, zany book called The Cat in the Hat, featuring a roguish, hat-wearing, badly-behaved feline. The release of the book was the turning point of Geisel's career, establishing him as the definitive children's book author and illustrator. He populated his future books with assorted characters such as wockets, whos, grinches, and Bar-ba-loots, and is credited with inventing the term "nerd" (from If I Ran the Zoo). He once remarked in an interview, "If I were invited to a dinner party with my characters, I wouldn't show up." In 1960, Bennett Cerf bet Geisel $50 that he couldn't write an entire book using only fifty words. Geisel won the bet with Green Eggs and Ham, but Cerf never paid the $50. After Geisel's wife died in 1967, he married an old friend, Audrey Stone Diamond in 1968, who not only influenced his later books, but became president of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, acting to guard the legacy left by Geisel after his demise on September 24, 1991. Geisel wrote and illustrated 46 children's books, which have been translated into more than 20 languages, as well as Braille, and over 200 million copies have found their way into homes and hearts around the world. Besides the books, his works have provided the source for eleven children's television specials, a Broadway musical and two feature-length motion pictures. His honors include two Academy awards, two Emmy awards, a Peabody award, and the Pulitzer Prize. Seuss was one of the few authors of children's books who could get away with moralizing. His amusing illustrations and rhymes allow his readers to enjoy the fun of the books while still recognizing the morals of the stories. His books are timeless; as children mature they are able to discover even more satire and humor. Dr. Seuss charmed his way into the consciousness of four generations of children and parents, and in the process inspired millions of kids to learn to read. Photo is at: http://www.catinthehat.org/history.htm Caption: Dr. Seuss, award-winning author of many children's classics