Dear ol' Dr. Seuss was born Theodor Seuss Geisel on March 2, 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. For those who do not happen to know - he was a writer of childrens books, and was quite a pro! I'll bet you knew that though, eh? His books have inspired countless numbers of folks in this world and countless films which makes this bookworm, a hollywood legend....
From the beginning Dr. Seuss was a very intelligent individual. (not Seuss himself pardon the pun, but his dreams HAVE come alive in the youth costumes of today!) His mother often used to chant melody rymes to young Seuss as he drifted to sleep and Seuss always credited his mother with his ability to ryme so well. He went on to graduate from Dartmouth college in 1925, where he was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, the Casque & Gauntlet Society, and wrote for the Dartmouth Jack O'Lantern humor magazine under his own name and the pen name "Seuss." He entered Lincoln College, Oxford, intending to earn a doctorate in literature. At Oxford he met Helen Palmer, married her in 1927, and returned to the United States without earning his doctorate. According to friends, he saw what he wanted to do, knew he had the talent, and took siege of it!
Even at this early stage, Geisel had started using the pen name "Dr. Seuss". His first work signed as "Dr. Seuss" appeared six months into his work for Judge. Seuss was his mother's maiden name; as an immigrant from Germany, she would have pronounced it more or less as "zoice", but today it is universally pronounced with an initial s sound and rhyming with "juice". The "Dr." is an acknowledgment of his father's unfulfilled hopes that Seuss would earn a
doctorate at Oxford. Geisel also used the pen name Theo LeSieg (Geisel spelled backwards) for books he wrote but others illustrated.
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As World War II began, Dr. Seuss turned to political cartoons, drawing over 400 in two years as editorial cartoonist for the left-wing New York City daily newspaper, PM. Dr. Seuss's political cartoons opposed the viciousness of Hitler
and Mussolini and were highly critical of isolationists, most notably Charles Lindbergh, who opposed American entry into the war. Some cartoons depicted Japanese Americans as traitors, one of which appeared days before the
internments started. Some have taken these cartoons to reflect his own negative attitude toward the Japanese people, while others have taken him to be presenting a parody of others' attitudes.
Following a very difficult illness, his wife, Helen Palmer Geisel committed suicide on October 23, 1967. Seuss married Audrey Stone Diamond on June 21, 1968. Seuss himself died, following several years of illness, in La Jolla, California on
September 24, 1991. See his grave here.
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