Remembering
Dr. Seuss
Due
to the National Education Association’s Read Across America program being set
around the birthday (March 2) of famed children’s author, Dr. Seuss, I wanted
to give you a little information about the author himself.
Five fun facts about Dr Seuss – or Theodor Seuss
Geisel, to give him his full name.
1. His first book was rejected by over 20
publishers. Dr
Seuss got the idea for his first work, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, from listening to
the rhythmic sound of a ship’s engine. The book was reportedly rejected by
anything between 20 and 43 publishers (the author’s own account of the number
varied) before it was accepted for publication by Vanguard Press in
1937. His books have gone on to sell over half a billion copies worldwide,
making him one of the biggest-selling children’s authors in the world.
2. Dr Seuss included the word ‘contraceptive’ in a
draft of his children’s book Hop
on Pop to make sure his publisher was paying attention. The original draft of the book contains these
lines:
‘When
I read I am smart / I always cut whole words apart. / Con Stan Tin O Ple,
Tim Buk Too / Con Tra Cep Tive, Kan Ga Roo.’ We’re pleased to report that the
publisher, Bennett Cerf, was paying
attention, and this line was removed. (More great word
facts here.)
3. When Dr. Seuss suffered from writer’s block, he
would go to a secret closet filled with hats and wear them till the words came. He owned
hundreds of hats and
would encourage his guests at dinner parties to wear one. His second
book, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew
Cubbins, appears to have been autobiographical.
4. ‘Dr Seuss’ is one of the most mispronounced of
all writers’ names. It
actually rhymes with ‘voice’, so ‘Zoyce’ rather than ‘Zeus’. As well as using
the name Dr Seuss, Theodor Seuss Geisel also wrote under the pen names Theo
LeSieg and Rosetta Stone.
5. His bestselling book Green Eggs and Ham was banned in Maoist China because it
portrayed ‘early Marxism’. Perhaps one of the more surprising banned books, Green Eggs and Ham was outlawed in China until
Seuss’s death in 1991.
He wrote the book as the result of a bet – he was challenged to write a book
using just 50 words. All but one of the words in the book are
monosyllabic: ‘anywhere’ is the only word in Green Eggs and Ham that has more than one syllable.
Some
of the famous Dr. Seuss Quotes are:
A
person’s a person, no matter how small.
Unless
someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not!
Today
was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.
The
more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places
you’ll go.
How
did it get so late so soon? It’s night
before it’s afternoon. December is here
before it is June. My goodness how the
time has flewn. How did it get so late
so soon?
You’re
in pretty good shape for the shape you are in.
From
there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.
You
have brains in your head. You have feet
in your shoes. You can steer yourself in
any directions you choose. You’re on
your own, and you know what you know.
And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.
Step
with care and great tact, and remember that life is a great balancing act.
You’re
never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.
Fantasy
is a necessary ingredient in living.
It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, and
that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.
