Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in 1904 on Howard Street in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was born into the family of his father, Theodor Robert Geisel, and his mother Henrietta Seuss Geisel. Theodor also had a sister, Marnie. The Geisel children had a very active childhood; their parents were always around, and they all had very strong relationships with each other. Ted's father and grandfather were both brew masters in the city, while his mother was more of a stay-at –home mother. One of the most notable things about the Geisel children’s childhood, was that their mother would often soothed her children to sleep by "chanting" rhymes that she remembered from her own youth. Seuss has credited his mother with his ability to create rhymes because of this practice. Being a family that had immigrated from Germany during World War One, and because they had immigrated during the prohibition, the Geisel family was faced with financial and social challenges. Despite everything, the Geisels would still prosper. When he was a teenager, Ted left Springfield to attend Dartmouth College. Ted became the editor-in-chief of Dartmouth's humor magazine, the Jack-O-Lantern. Although his tenure as editor ended prematurely when Ted and his friends were caught throwing a drinking party, which was against the prohibition laws and school policy, he continued to contribute to the magazine, signing his work "Seuss." This is the first record of The Cat in the Hat the "Seuss" pseudonym, which was both Ted's middle name and his mother's maiden name. This is the first record of The Cat in the Hat. The "Seuss" pseudonym, which was both Ted's middle name and his mother's maiden name.
After he went to Dartmouth, Ted went on to Oxford University in England after graduation, to please his father who wanted him to be a college professor. However, his academic studies bored him, and he decided to tour Europe instead. Oxford did provide him the opportunity to meet a classmate, Helen Palmer, who not only became his first wife, but also a children's author and book editor.
After returning to the United States, Ted began to pursue a career as a cartoonist. The Saturday Evening Post and other publications published some of his early pieces, but the bulk of Ted's activity during his early career was devoted to creating advertising campaigns for Standard Oil, which he did for more than 15 years.
As World War II approached, Ted's focus shifted, and he began contributing weekly political cartoons to PM magazine, a liberal publication. Too old for the draft, but wanting to contribute to the war effort, Ted served with Frank Capra's Signal Corps (U.S. Army) making training movies. It was here that he was introduced to the art of animation and developed a series of animated training films featuring a trainee called Private Snafu.
While Ted was continuing