DR. SEUSS

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DR. SEUSS

• Ten Facts About the
• Famous Author

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1. Was Dr Seuss his real name?

• Not exactly. His name was Theodore Seuss Geisel -
  Seuss being his mother's maiden name. He started
  using it as a pseudonym at university. He added
  the Dr later, as a joke, because his father had
  always wanted him to get a doctorate and become a
  professor.

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2. How many books did he write?

• Between 1937 and 1991, when he died aged 87, he
  published more than 40 books, which have sold
  half a billion copies between them - more even
  than J K Rowling's Harry Potter books. He nearly
  burned his first book, And to think that I saw it
  on Mulberry Street, after it was turned down by
  27 publishers.

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3. Did he have children himself?

• No. He was not particularly fond of spending time
  with them either. His widow, Audrey, said in a
  recent interview that he was slightly afraid of
  them. She said he was always thinking "What
  might they do next? What might they ask next?"
  She added "He couldn't just sit down on the
  floor and play with them."

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4. Where did he get his ideas from?

• This was a question he hated being asked. His
  mother was one source of inspiration she worked
  in a bakery and would sing him to sleep in his
  childhood with her "pie-selling chants".
• One of his most popular books, Green Eggs and
  Ham, was the result of a bet that he could not
  write a book using only 50 words.

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• could
• may will see tree
• let me be
• train on
• say the dark
• rain
• goat
• boat
• so try may
• if
• good
• thank.

• These are, in order of appearance
• I am Sam
• that
• do not like
• you green eggs and ham
• them would here or there
• anywhere
• in a house with mouse
• eat box fox
• car they

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5. Where did he live?

• He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, where
  his grandparents lived on Mulberry Street - hence
  the title of his first book. He studied at
  Dartmouth College (in the US) and Oxford
  University (in the UK). In 1948 he and his first
  wife Helen bought an old observation tower in La
  Jolla, California, where he would shut himself
  away in a studio for at least eight hours a day,
  sometimes literally wearing a thinking cap.

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6. Which are his most popular books?

1. The Cat in the Hat
2. Green Eggs and Ham
3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
4. Fox in Socks
5. The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
6. One Fish Two Fish

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7. What impact did they have on children's books?

• A revolutionary one. He has been credited with
  killing off "Dick and Jane", the sterile heroes
  of older children's books, replacing them with
  clever rhymes, plot twists and rebellious heroes
  who do the unexpected. The Cat in the Hat was
  commissioned following publication in 1955 of an
  influential book, Why Johnny Can't Read, which
  said children were being held back by boring
  books. An article under the same name in Life
  magazine called for more imaginative
  illustration, and named Dr Seuss as a good
  example of what could be done. Now one in four
  American children receive Dr Seuss as their first
  book.

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8. Have the books ever been made into films?

• There have been a number of animated films. More
  recently, a version of How the Grinch stole
  Christmas! starring Jim Carrey became the highest
  grossing film in the USA in the year 2000. A film
  of The Cat in the Hat, starring Mike Myers, was
  described by some critics as the worst film of
  the year in the USA in 2003, though it also did
  well financially.

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9. What did he think was his greatest work?

• He once said it was not a book or an
  illustration, but the Lion Wading Pool at Wild
  Animal Park in San Diego, which he donated in
  1973.

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10. Which was his most controversial book?

• The Butter Battle Book, published in 1984, about
  the arms race. Taking the place of the US and the
  USSR are the Yooks and the Zooks, who disagree on
  whether bread should be eaten butter-side down,
  or butter-side up. The story ends with a blank
  page, allowing readers to imagine the result of
  the rising tensions for themselves. The book
  remained on the New York Times' bestseller list
  for six months - for adults. The televised
  version of the book was shown in the USSR in
  1990 Dr Seuss joked that it was after this that
  the country began falling apart.