Theodor Seuss Geisel (/ˈsɔɪs/ Listeni/ˈɡaɪ.zəl/; March 2, 1904 –
September 24,
1991) was an
American writer and illustrator best known for authoring popular children's books under the pen name
Dr. Seuss (/suːs/). His work includes several of the most popular children's books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death.
Geisel adopted his "Dr. Seuss" pseudonym during his university studies at
Dartmouth College and the
University of Oxford. After leaving
Oxford in
1927 he began his career as an illustrator and cartoonist for
Vanity Fair,
Life, and various other publications. He also worked as an illustrator for advertising campaigns, most notably for
Flit and
Standard Oil, and as a political cartoonist for the
New York newspaper PM. He published his first children's book, And to
Think That I Saw It on
Mulberry Street, in
1937. During
World War II he worked in an animation department of the
United States Army, where he produced several short films, including
Design for Death, which later won the
1947 Academy Award for Documentary Feature.
After the war Geisel focused on his children's books, writing classics such as
If I Ran the Zoo (
1950), Horton Hears a Who! (
1955),
If I Ran the Circus (
1956),
The Cat in the Hat (
1957),
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957), and
Green Eggs and Ham (1960). He published over 60 books during his career, which have spawned numerous adaptations, including 11 television specials, four feature films, a
Broadway musical and four television series. He won the
Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in
1958 for
Horton Hatches the Egg and again in
1961 for And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Geisel's birthday, March 2, has been adopted as the annual date for
National Read Across America Day, an initiative on reading created by the
National Education Association.
Over the course of his long career, Geisel wrote over 60 books. Though most were published under his well-known pseudonym, Dr. Seuss, he also authored over a dozen books as
Theo LeSieg and one as
Rosetta Stone. His books have topped many bestseller lists, sold over 600 million copies, and been translated into more than 20 languages.[2]In
2000,
Publishers Weekly compiled a list of the best-selling children's books of all time; of the top
100 hardcover books, 16 were written by Geisel, including Green Eggs and Ham, at number 4, The Cat in the Hat, at number 9, and
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, at number 13.[85] In the years after his death in 1991, two additional books were published based on his sketches and notes:
Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! and
Daisy-Head Mayzie.
My Many Colored Days, originally written in
1973, was posthumously published in
1996.
In September 2011, seven stories originally published in magazines during the
1950s were released in a collection entitled The Bippolo
Seed and Other
Lost Stories.[86]
Geisel also wrote a pair of books for adults:
The Seven Lady Godivas (
1939; reprinted
1987), a retelling of the
Lady Godiva legend that included nude depictions; and
You're Only Old Once! (written in
1986 when Geisel was 82), which chronicles an old man's journey through a clinic. His last book, published the year before his death, was Oh, the
Places You'll Go!, which became a popular gift for graduating students.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss
- published: 07 Oct 2015
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