Happy Birthday Cool Cat

On 2 March, schools all over the U.S. celebrated the birthday of a much beloved children's author and illustrator, Theodor Geisel also known as Dr. Seuss. We are all familiar with the classic stories of "Green Eggs And Ham" and "Yertle The Turtle". What holiday wouldn't be complete without "How The Grinch Stole Christmas"? We learned to read with "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" and watched "The Lorax" and "Horton Hears A Who" come to life on the silver screen. But who is the cat behind the hat?

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born 2 March 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. His father and grandfather were brewmasters and owners of Kalmbach and Geisel beer commonly known as Come Back and Guzzle beer. WWI and prohibition slightly challenged the family business, but the family persevered and Ted, as he was known, and his sister Marnie had happy childhoods.

Ted attended Dartmouth College and became the editor-in-chief of the college's humor magazine, the Jack-O-Lantern. His tenure was short though when he and his friends were caught partying with alcohol. These were prohibition times and alcohol was against the law and school policy. Ted did, however, continue to contribute to the magazine under the pen name Seuss. This was the first time Ted had used the pseudonym which was not only his mom's maiden name, but his middle name.

Ted's dad had wanted him to be a college professor so he took off to attend Oxford in England, but his classes bored him so he decided to tour Europe. While at Oxford, he did manage to meet his first wife, Helen Palmer. Ted returned to the U.S. to pursue cartooning and worked with Standard Oil for over 15 years creating advertising campaigns.

Soon the U.S. found itself involved in WWII. Ted contributed weekly political cartoons to a liberal magazine called PM Magazine. Since Ted was too old for the draft, he served with Frank Capra's U.S. Army Signal Corps. Private Snafu was a trainee created by Ted in a series of animated training films. He continuted to contribute to magazines and soon Viking Press offered him a contract illustrating a collection of children's sayings. The book was called "Boners" and although the book wasn't a success, the illustrations got great reviews.

Ted's first book was "And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street". Many of his books are reminescent of his childhood in Springfield. From the Jungle of Nool that was taken from the watercourses in Springfield's Forest Park to the truck in "The Sneetches" that came right off the streets of Springfield, Ted's books reflected the happy time when his mom would softly "chant" rhymes to soothe he and his sister to sleep. His first book met with rejection 27 times until it was picked up by Vanguard Press. Soon afterward, Ted was approached with an offer under a joint venture. Houghton Mifflin (Vanguard Press) and Random House asked Ted to write and illustrate a children's primer using only 225 "new-reader" words. "The Cat In The Hat" was born.

In 1967, Ted's wife, Helen Palmer, took her own life. She was a children's writer too penning favorites such as "I Was Kissed By A Seal" and "A Fish Out Of Water". Over the last 13 years, she had a series of serious illnesses, including cancer, and didn't want to be a burden on Ted any longer. A year later he married Audrey Stone Dimond who is now president of Dr. Seuss Enterprises.

Dr. Seuss died on 24 September 1991 of throat cancer. He has won many awards and his books have seen adaptations on Broadway and in the movies. This is just a shadow of such a tall life he led. What is most important is the legacy of literacy and the love of reading he left to many, many past, present and, most certainly, future generations. 

Happy belated birthday Dr. Seuss!