The famous Dr. Suess

Theodor Geisel was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Mass. Who is this you may ask? One of the most influential authors in American culture. You will know him as Dr. Seuss. This comedic and creative man is still globally known today because of his work in children’s literature.

He attributed his creative mind to his mother who used to make rhyming games with different flavors of pie. This love for rhyming would follow him into his literary career after he wrote for Dartmouth college’s humor magazine, “The Jack-O-Lantern,” from 1921-1925. In fact, his working on the magazine is where he coined his pen name. After being caught with alcohol during Prohibition, Geisel was kicked off the magazine. In order to still submit his cartoons, he submitted work under the name T. Seuss. The ‘Dr.’ was a consolation for his father, who always wanted him to practice medicine.

This would only be the beginning for one of America’s most cherished children’s authors. Though he did some rather interesting things such as create a successful bug spray ad and work on “The Pocket Book of Boners,” Geisel is remembered for his works such as “The Cat in the Hat,” “When the Grinch Stole Christmas,” and “One Fish, Two Fish.”

The road to success was long, and started in 1937 when he finally got his first children’s book published. The book, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” was rejected 27 times before finally going to press. Part of the struggle, as word has it, is that Geisel would write and then discard anywhere from 500-1,000 pages of his picture books during the first draft. He would often write for eight hours a day.

Part of this dedication to the creation of children’s books comes from the reports of American children having just a hard time with learning to read during the period. He believed that using a predictable rhyme scheme as well as the minimal amount of words would help children with their reading. The most impressive demonstration of this is “Green Eggs and Ham” where he only used 50 words in total.

With all that inspiration and creativity behind his work, it is no surprise that Geisel was the first person ever to win a Pulitzer Prize for writing children’s books, even when facing censorship for “The Lorax” in 1989. That is just the tip of the iceberg for Geisel. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he won a Peabody Award for both animated specials “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” and “Horton Hears a Who!” and was put on the 100 People Who Changed the World list by Life Books in 2010.

As for his personal life, Geisel met his first wife, Helen Palmer, while they both attended Oxford University in 1926. While he never finished his masters in English, the two married a year later and moved to an apartment in New York City. This is where Geisel became established as a cartoonist.

Despite his success, the author’s personal life was more tumultuous. Geisel and Palmer were never able to have children together, and he would often dedicate his books to the children he’d imagined they had, one a daughter named Chrysanthemum-Pearl. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only source of turmoil in their marriage. Geisel and Palmer had a tumultuous marriage, as she suspected him having multiple extramarital affairs. A suspicion that was proven true.

Palmer suffered from Guillain-Barre syndrome and partial paralysis for more than a decade when she became clinically depressed. She took her own life with an overdose of barbiturates. Her suicide note is tear jerking and heart wrenching to say the least.

After struggling with the weight of his wife’s death, Geisel would move on to marry Audrey Stone Dimond a year later. They would be married for 23 years until Geisel’s death from oral cancer in 1991 at the age of 87. The last book published in his lifetime was “Oh, the Places You’ll Go.” Despite the tragedies and hardships of his life, Dr. Seuss is still impacting the lives of children everywhere with over 600 million copies sold in 20 different languages.

With all the struggle, and all the strife, his works live on to impact your life. Our mountains are waiting, we know that it’s true, who knows if we could tackle them without Dr. Suess?