How many of you recognize the name, Theodore Geisel? Nobody? Ok, what if I told you he was an award winning writer? Alright, what if I asked, “Do you like green eggs and ham?”
Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known under his pseudonym "Dr. Seuss," was the best-loved and certainly the best-selling children's book writer of all time. Geisel entertained several generations of young readers with his zany nonsense books. Speaking to Herbert Kupferberg of Parade, Geisel once claimed: "Old men on crutches tell me, 'I've been brought up on your books.' During the second half of the twentieth century Geisel had a tremendous impact on children's reading habits and the way reading is taught and approached in the school system.
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts. The town was booming, with several large manufacturing companies and a thriving population of German immigrants. Theodor's grandfather and father owned a successful brewery, and the future Dr. Seuss grew up in the midst of a bustling extended family. A child during World War I, Theodor acquired a sense of patriotism that would remain with him his entire life. As a Scout, he worked to sell U.S. War Bonds. In an oft-told story, he sold so many that he was supposed to receive an award, along with 9 other boys, from President Theodore Roosevelt. However, during the awards ceremony, Roosevelt found that he had only nine medals to give, and when he got to Theodor, standing at the end of the row, he asked, "What's this boy doing here?" For the rest of his life, Geisel suffered from acute stage fright, and sometimes skipped speaking engagements altogether.
As Prohibition loomed and threatened to put his father out of business, Geisel was accepted into Dartmouth College. Enrolled as an English major, he proved to be only a mediocre student. Theodor divided his time between his studies and writing for the Dartmouth humor magazine, Jack-o-Lantern. It was there that he discovered his love of designing books with pictures and words, though he said it took him "almost a quarter of a century" before he felt he had succeeded.
As Geisel's senior year came to a close, his father asked where he'd be going next. When Theodor answered that he'd gotten a scholarship to study at Lincoln College in Oxford, his father immediately passed the news on to the town newspaper, who published it the next day. Unfortunately, Geisel was exaggerating a bit when he said he'd "gotten" the scholarship; he’d applied, but ultimately was rejected. Nevertheless, his father sent Geisel to England in 1925 for a three-year stay.
It was quite by chance that Geisel began writing for children. Returning from Europe by boat in 1936, he amused himself by putting together a nonsense poem to the rhythm of the ship's engine. Later he drew pictures to illustrate the rhyme and in 1937 published the result as And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, his first children's book. Set in Geisel's home town of Springfield, Massachusetts, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street is the story of a boy whose imagination transforms a simple horse-drawn wagon into a marvelous and exotic parade of strange creatures and vehicles. Many critics regard it as Geisel's best work.
The outbreak of World War II forced Geisel to give up writing for children temporarily and to devote his talents to the war effort. Working with the Information and Education Division of the U.S. Army, he made documentary films for American soldiers. One of these army films—Hitler Lives—won an Academy Award, a feat Geisel repeated with his documentary about the Japanese war effort, Design for Death, and the UPA cartoon Gerald McBoing-Boing, about a little boy who can only speak in sound effects. The screenplay for the film The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, which Geisel wrote with Allen Scott, achieved cult status during the 1960s among music students on college campuses. Later, Geisel adapted several of his books into animated
Velasquez American Literature 2 Lesson 14 Dr. Seuss Biography Theodor Geisel Seuss is the most creative and imaginative author that is known for children’s books. Theodor Geisel Seuss was born on March 2, 1904, in Spring Field, and passed away on September 24, 1991, in La Jolla. Theodor was rejected by 27 publishers, but didn’t stop trying until he got published because becoming a children’s author was his dream. At the time of Theodor Geisel Seuss‘s death in 1991 his 44 children’s books had sold more…
literature through the form of picture books. These books are often filled with images that will resonate in the child’s mind, and contain a moral in which the child should learn from. Perhaps the most famous author of children’s books is Theodor Geisel, who wrote under the pen name Dr. Seuss. His works are celebrated in elementary schools nationwide on Dr. Seuss day, and four of his stories have been adapted into movies. However, Geisel’s most distinct legacy can be found in his distinctive…
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…
A major concept of Marxism is the notion that the bourgeoisie (the dominant class) controls and oppresses the proletariats (the working class) until there is a revolutionary change that causes the dominant class to see the emptiness of life in the bourgeoisie society. Seuss’s The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is partially based on Marxism as it discusses misplaced values and different social classes and has plenty of symbolism pertaining to differences in societies. For instance, there is a rich upper…
2. Mead uses the terms “I, me, and generalized other” to explain how one’s identity is shaped. Explain. George Mead was an important sociologist who developed what is now known as symbolic interactionism, and a large part of this term focuses on human interactions between small and large groups and how that shapes a persons identity. Mead broke this down into three general components applicable to each individual person known as “I, me, and the generalized other.” According to his research each…
Reading by the Creek It was a warm beautiful afternoon in late August, when I was sitting at my teacher, Mrs. Haun’s desk. I was just a child, six years old at the time. I looked at Mrs. Haun as she was dialing my mother’s number she peered back at me with utter disgust. When my mother answered on the other line, Mrs. Haun said “Mrs. Miller , hello this is Mrs. Haun” she paused for a brief moment and began talking again saying “yes Nikki is just fine…