Theodor Seuss Geisel

Hello there! My name is Theodor Seuss Geisel, but you probably know me as Dr. Seuss. I’ll let you in on a little secret: I wasn’t a real doctor! It was a fun name I made up. I was born on March 2nd, 1904, in a wonderful town called Springfield, Massachusetts. My father was in charge of the city parks, which meant I got to spend a lot of time at the Forest Park Zoo! I would bring my sketchbook and draw the animals for hours, but I always added my own silly twists. I’d imagine a flamingo with extra-long, wobbly legs, or a lion with a goofy, toothy grin that stretched from ear to ear. My mother was the one who first taught me the joy of rhymes. She had a collection of rhymes she would chant to me to help me fall asleep, and that wonderful, bouncy rhythm stuck with me my whole life, like a catchy song you can't stop humming.

When I grew up, I went off to college at a place called Dartmouth. I loved drawing funny cartoons for the school’s humor magazine, the Jack-O-Lantern. That’s where I first started signing my work as “Seuss,” which was my middle name and my mother’s maiden name. After college, I worked in advertising, drawing funny pictures for advertisements for things like bug spray! But what I really wanted to do was write and illustrate my own books for children. My very first book, 'And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,' was a story I dreamed up on a long boat trip. But it was rejected by 27 different publishers! Can you believe it? Each time, they sent it back. I felt so discouraged that I was walking home to burn the manuscript when I ran into an old friend who worked at a publishing house. He took a look, and just like that, he helped me get it published in 1937. My dream was finally starting to come true.

For a long time, the books made for new readers were, well, a little boring. They used simple words, but they didn’t have much excitement. One day, a publisher challenged me to write a book that was exciting and fun, but I could only use a small list of simple words. It was a tricky puzzle! I stared at that list of words for months, feeling completely stuck. Finally, out of frustration, I decided to take the first two words on the list that rhymed—'cat' and 'hat'—and an idea sparked. The whole story of a mischievous cat in a tall, red-and-white striped hat tumbled out of my imagination. 'The Cat in the Hat' was published in 1957, and it showed everyone that learning to read could be a grand adventure! After that, I wrote many more books, like 'Green Eggs and Ham,' which only uses 50 different words, and 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'.

I spent my life creating characters like the Lorax, who speaks for the trees, and Horton the elephant, who teaches us that a person's a person, no matter how small. I filled my books with wacky worlds, zany creatures, and tongue-twisting rhymes because I believed that imagination is one of the most important tools we have. It helps us see the world in new ways and solve problems with creativity. I passed away on September 24th, 1991, but the best part of being a storyteller is that my stories didn't end with me. They live on with you, every time you open one of my books and visit the Whos in Whoville or have breakfast with Sam-I-Am. So, I hope you’ll keep reading, keep dreaming, and always remember what I wrote: 'The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.'