Ted Geisel was born in 1904 in Springfield, MA. His father worked at the zoo and
Ted loved hearing about all the animals his father worked with. His mother, Henrietta Suess Geisel, would recite nonsense
verse to help him sleep at night. She wanted Ted to grow up to be a Doctor or Lawyer. As a child, he had a dog named Theophrastus
and loved to draw all sorts of strange animals and colorful creatures. He never liked schoolwork and even in college preferred
to draw and write short poems. He left college after a pretty student he had a crush on, complimented him on his drawing of
a flying cow. He started sending his work to every magazine and newspaper he could think of soon and started getting his crazy
drawings published in newspapers and magazines across the country.
He started using the name Dr. Seuss
for this silly work so that he could save his real name for the great works he wanted to write later in life. He married Helen
Palmer, the pretty student who liked his flying cow, when he was 23. He did advertising work for a string of magazines and
companies and wrote an alphabet book that featured his strange creatures. Every publisher rejected it. He then wrote a second
children’s book that was rejected by 27 publishers before finally getting published in 1937.
He continued writing children’s
books until 1990 when Oh! The Places You’ll Go was published. He died on September 24th 1991. He has received
several awards including a Pulitzer, plus honorary doctorates from seven universities. His books are the bestselling children’s
books ever with hundreds of millions of copies sold. He also used the name Theo LeSieg for many books that he wrote but did
not illustrate. He never got around to writing his great works that he had saved his real name for, but millions of children
everywhere love his fantastic creations.
The information in this bio was taken from The Boy on Fairfield Street: How Ted Geisel Grew
up to Become Dr. Suess by Kathleen Krull.
You can find
a more extensive biography, fun and games and complete lists of his work at www.seussville.com the official Dr. Seuss website
Below are illustrations from
my two favorite Dr. Suess books. Can you guys which ones???
