Theodor SEUSS Geisel (Lives and Legacies)

193 Pages·2010·2.75 MB·English

Theodor SEUSS Geisel
Lives and Legacies
Larzer Zif
M ark Twain
David S. Reynolds
Walt Whitman
Edwin S. Gaustad
R oger Williams
Benjamin Franklin
Gale E. Christianson
I saac Newton
Paul Addison
C hurchill : The Unexpected Hero
G. Edward White
O liver Wendell Holmes Jr .
Craig Raine
T. S . Eliot
Carolyn Porter
W illiam Faulkner
Donald E. Pease
T heodor SEUSS Geisel
Theodor SEUSS Geisel
Donald E. Pease
2010
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Copyright © 2010 by Donald E. Pease
The images on pages 7, 8, 21, 55, 60, 82, 84, 86–90, 95, 98, 105–7, 110, 116, 119–20, 123–24, 126,
139–40, 144–45, and 151 are reprinted courtesy of Random House.
The images on pages 28–32, 37, and 42 are reprinted courtesy of the Rauner Library.
The images on pages 62 and 65–67 are reprinted courtesy of PM.
The images on pages 45, 47, and 53 are reprinted courtesy of Judge.
The image on page 43 is reprinted courtesy of the Saturday Evening Post.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pease, Donald E.
Theodor Seuss Geisel / Donald E. Pease.
p. cm. — (Lives and legacies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-532302-3
1. Seuss, Dr. 2. Authors, American—20th century—Biography.
3. Illustrators—United States—Biography.
4. Children’s literature—Authorship. I. Title.
PS3513.E2Z794 2010
813′.52—dc22
[B] 2009036478
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For Thomas Alexander Pease (1955–2008),
who grew up reading Dr. Seuss;
Marie Theresa Giebel Pease (1924–1999),
who made it all fun;
and Patricia McKee,
who added the cats
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Contents
Preface ix
One
Dr. Seuss ’s Passage Home 1
Two
Becoming Dr. Seuss 23
Three
Dr. Seuss Returns 59
Four
Dr. Seuss and Helen Geisel ’s Empire 101
Five
Dr. Seuss ’s Legacy 133
Acknowledgments 153
Notes 155
Index 167
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Preface
In the course of his sixty-five-year career, Theodor Seuss
Geisel was an advertisement agency artist, animator, producer
and director of animated cartoons, caricaturist, playwright, short
story writer, documentary f lmmaker, lyricist, teacher, political
cartoonist, and editor and author of children’s books. Early in his
career he invented the persona of Dr. Seuss to integrate these dis-
parate facets of his creative personality. But Dr. Seuss did not
wholly commit himself to authoring books for children until the
1950s.
Dr. Seuss’s children’s books have enjoyed phenomenal com-
mercial and critical success. Dr. Seuss’s works, which have
changed the way children everywhere learn how to read, have
been translated into f fteen languages. More than 200 million
copies of his books have been sold worldwide. Six books have
been published posthumously. In 2001 Publishers Weekly listed
fourteen Dr. Seuss books among the top one hundred all-time
best-selling hardcover children’s books. Green Eggs and Ham
placed fourth on the list, and The Cat in the Hat ranked ninth.
They were followed by One f sh two f sh red f sh blue f sh (13),
Hop on Pop (16), Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (17), Dr. Seuss’s ABC
(18), The Cat in the Hat Comes Back (26), Fox in Socks (31), How
the Grinch Stole Christmas! (35), My Book About Me (40), I Can
Read with My Eyes Shut! (58), Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!
ix