Molly Teti

Children Lit                                                     Online Course

Due 06/17/16

A. Benedict

   Class “Presentation”

         Dr. Seuss was the most successful children's author of all time. He wrote forty-eight books which sold two hundred million copies in about twenty languages. Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, MA. Many of his books were written with the pen name of Theo LeSieg. This was Theodor Geisel spelled backwards. He would continue with that pen name until 1955 when “he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Dartmouth and thus legitimately became 'Dr.Seuss'” (Fulton, The 1950s in America). He began his career as a freelance cartoonist in 1927 which is surprising as his high school art teacher saw no art potential at all in any of his high school work. He worked as an advertising illustrator for Standard Oil and Ford Motor Corp. before becoming a children's author (Gale,  2002).

        His first book was published in 1937. And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street was written as he crossed the Atlantic Ocean. The rhythm of the ships engine helped him to write words of rhyme which would become a style all his own. His lack of formal art training left him with the unique ability to draw zany creatures. His careful placement of words on the page got the kids curious as to the rest of the story, making his creations real “page turners.” The Cat In The Hat was published in 1957. Interestingly enough, The Cat In The Hat was first published by Houghton-Mifflin where it did not do well. Random House published it for the general market and it was an instant hit for both kids and adults. Shortly before this, the “Dick And Jane” primer books that had been used for years to teach kids to read had come under fire for being dull by a fellow publisher and friend. This friend challenged him to write a better book. Seuss took the challenge and produced a finished product that would change how kids learned to read. This book took a year to write. It is very challenging to write a complex story with a vocabulary of 225 words, with all words