All About Dr. Seuss   

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to
the world as the beloved Dr. Seuss, was
born in 1904 on Howard Street in
Springfield, Massachusetts. Ted's father,
Theodor Robert, and grandfather were
brewmasters in the city. His mother,
Henrietta Seuss Geisel, often soothed
her children to sleep by "chanting"
rhymes remembered from her youth.
Ted credited his mother with both his
ability and desire to create the rhymes
for which he became so well known.

Although the Geisels enjoyed great
financial success for many years, the
onset of World War I and Prohibition
presented both financial and social
challenges for the German immigrants.
Nonetheless, the family persevered and
again prospered, providing Ted and his
sister, Marnie, with happy childhoods.

The influence of Ted's memories of
Springfield can be seen throughout his
work. Drawings of Horton the Elephant
meandering along streams in the
Jungle of Nool, for example, mirror the
watercourses in Springfield's Forest Park
from the period. The fanciful truck
driven by Sylvester McMonkey McBean
in The Sneetches could well be the
Knox tractor that young Ted saw on the
streets of Springfield. In addition to its
name, Ted's first children's book, And
To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street,
is filled with Springfield imagery,
including a look-alike of Mayor Fordis
Parker on the reviewing stand, and
police officers riding red motorcycles,
the traditional color of Springfield's
famed Indian Motocycles.

Ted left Springfield as a teenager to
attend Dartmouth College, where he
became editor-in-chief of the
Jack-O-Lantern, Dartmouth's humor
magazine. Although his tenure as editor
ended prematurely when Ted and his
friends were caught throwing a drinking
party, which was against the prohibition
laws and school policy, he continued
to contribute to the magazine, signing
his work "Seuss." This is the first record of
the "Seuss" pseudonym, which was both
Ted's middle name and his mother's
maiden name.

To please his father, who wanted him to
be a college professor, Ted went on to
Oxford University in England after
graduation. However, his academic
studies bored him, and he decided to
tour Europe instead. Oxford did provide
him the opportunity to meet a
classmate, Helen Palmer, who not only
became his first wife, but also a
children's author and book editor.

After returning to the United States, Ted
began to pursue a career as a
cartoonist. The Saturday Evening Post
and other publications published some
of his early pieces, but the bulk of Ted's
activity during his early career was
devoted to creating advertising
campaigns for Standard Oil, which he
did for more than 15 years.

As World War II approached, Ted's
focus shifted, and he began
contributing weekly political cartoons
to PM magazine, a liberal publication.
Too old for the draft, but wanting to
contribute to the war effort, Ted served
with Frank Capra's Signal Corps (U.S.
Army) making training movies. It was
here that he was introduced to the art
of animation and developed a series of
animated training films featuring a
trainee called Private Snafu.

While Ted was continuing to contribute
to Life, Vanity Fair, Judge and other
magazines, Viking Press offered him a
contract to illustrate a collection of
children's sayings called Boners.
Although the book was not a
commercial success, the illustrations
received great reviews, providing Ted
with his first "big break" into children's
literature. Getting the first book that he
both wrote and illustrated, And to Think
That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,
published, however, required a great
degree of persistence - it was rejected
27 times before being published by
Vanguard Press.

The Cat in the Hat, perhaps the defining
book of Ted's career, developed as
part of a unique joint venture between
Houghton Mifflin (Vanguard Press) and
Random House. Houghton Mifflin asked
Ted to write and illustrate a children's
primer using only 225 "new-reader"
vocabulary words. Because he was
under contract to Random House,
Random House obtained the trade
publication rights, and Houghton Mifflin
kept the school rights. With the release
of The Cat in the Hat, Ted became the
definitive children's book author and
illustrator.

After Ted's first wife died in 1967, Ted
married an old friend, Audrey Stone
Geisel, who not only influenced his
later books, but now guards his legacy
as the president of Dr. Seuss Enterprises.

At the time of his death on September
24, 1991, Ted had written and illustrated
44 children's books, including such
all-time favorites as Green Eggs and
Ham, Oh, the Places You'll Go, Fox in
Socks, and How the Grinch Stole
Christmas. His books had been
translated into more than 15
languages. Over 200 million copies
had found their way into homes and
hearts around the world.

Besides the books, his works have
provided the source for eleven
children's television specials, a
Broadway musical and a feature-length
motion picture. Other major motion
pictures are on the way.

His honors included two Academy
awards, two Emmy awards, a Peabody
award and the Pulitzer Prize.
All About Dr.Seuss

Green Eggs and Ham
At Little Cherubs Preschool we
celebrate Dr.Seuss by cooking eggs
and ham, with a few drops of GREEN
food coloring,and then we try them,
and we like them!!
We also read Dr.Seuss books and
have a GREAT TIME!!
"OH, THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!
THERE IS FUN TO BE DONE!
THERE ARE
POINTS TO BE SCORED.
THERE ARE GAMES TO BE WON.