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Birth and Early Years
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 2, 1904. All of his grandparents were German immigrants. After attending some art classes as a child, Geisel developed an illustrating talent. He facilitated this dream by attending Dartmouth College (Dr. Seuss National Memorial). At Dartmouth, he was caught drinking and suspended from writing and illustrating for the school newspaper, so to continue writing for the newspaper secretly Geisel operated... -
Birth and Early Years Continued
under the alias of "Dr. Seuss" (The Life and Times of Dr. Seuss). -
Early Career
After graduating from Dartmouth in 1925, Seuss began submitting some of his political cartoons to local newspapers hoping to get featured. His first nationally published cartoon appeared in the July 16, 1927, issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Later that year, Geisel accepted a job as writer and illustrator at the humor magazine Judge. After his new job, Seuss married his girlfriend, Helen (Dr. Seuss National Memorial). ... -
Early Career Continued
Geisel supported himself and his wife through the Great Depression by drawing advertising for General Electric, NBC, Standard Oil, Narragansett Brewing Company and many other companies. In 1935, he wrote and drew a short-lived comic strip called Hejji. Geisel gained a significant public profile through a program for motor boat lubricants produced by Standard Oil under the brand name Essomarine (The Life and Times of Dr. Seuss). -
World War II Work
As World War II began, Geisel turned to political cartoons, drawing over 400 in two years as editorial cartoonist for the New York City daily newspaper, PM. Geisel's political cartoons denounced Hitler and Mussolini and were highly critical of isolationists. They were later published in Dr. Seuss Goes to War. (Dr. Seuss National Memorial). ... -
World War II Work Continued
Private Snafu, Episode 04: "The Goldbrick"In 1942, Geisel turned to direct support of the U.S. war effort. First, he worked drawing posters for the Treasury Department and the War Production Board. Then, in 1943, he joined the Army as a Captain and was commander of the Animation Department of the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Forces, where he wrote films that included the Private Snafu series of adult army training films (The Life and Times of Dr. Seuss). -
Post War and Childrens' Books
In May 1954, Life magazine published a report on illiteracy among school children, which concluded that children were not learning to read because their books were boring. The director of the education division at Houghton Mifflin compiled a list of 250 words he felt were important for first-graders to recognize and asked Geisel to write a book using only those words. Nine months later, Geisel completed The Cat in the Hat (The Life and Times of Dr. Seuss). -
Post War and Childrens' Books Continued
After the war, Geisel and his wife moved to La Jolla, California. Returning to children's books, he wrote many works, including 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). The Cat in the Hat and other books written for young children achieved international success and they remain very popular today (Dr. Seuss National Memorial). -
Death and Honors
Geisel died of oral cancer on September 24, 1991, at his home in La Jolla at the age of 87. In 2002, the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden opened in his birthplace of Springfield, Massachusetts. It features sculptures of Geisel and of many of his characters. On May 28, 2008, Geisel was inducted into the California Hall of Fame. On March 2, 2009, Google changed its logo to commemorate Geisel's birthday. He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Dr. Seuss National Memorial).
