Dr. Seuss

Theodor Seuss Geisel was a cartoonist, writer, and animator. He is best known for writing and illustrating children's books, and he is most widely known by his pen name, Dr. Seuss, which he adopted during his university studies at Dartmouth College and the University of Oxford. Over his lifetime, he wrote a few of the most popular children's book ever.

Born in March of 1904, Geisel left Oxford in 1927 and worked for Vanity Fair, Life, and various other publications, as an illustrator and cartoonist. He was married twice. He married Helen Geisel in 1927 . She died in 1967, and he married Audrey Dimond in 1968.

Photo taken in 1957

Dr. Seuss’s best-selling book is “Green Eggs and Ham” published in 1960, with 8,143,088 copies sold by 2001. “The Cat in the Hat”, published in 1957, is his second best-selling book, with 7,220,982 copies sold by 2001. The third best-selling Dr. Seuss book is“One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish”, which was published in 1960, and sold 6,164,454 copies sold by 2001. “Oh the Places You’ll Go” was published in 1991 and was the most rapid selling of all Dr. Seuss’s books and came in fifth on the list of his best-selling books. It is also one of my favorites.

Dr. Seuss died in 1991. Four years later, University of California’s library building was renamed Geisel Library in honor of him.

Dr. Seuss wrote most of his books in Anapestic tetrameter. Usually each line in Anapestic tetrameter is made up of four anapestic metrical feet, and each of these has two unstressed syllables and then a stressed syllable. Many poets and writers believe it is a reason that Dr. Seuss’s books were such crowd-pleasers. I think another reason for the success of Dr. Seuss’s books is his bright and fun drawings.

Dr. Seuss’s stories are funny, and it’s fun to read things that rhyme. His artwork is colorful and eye-catching. The things in his drawings are usually droopy and rounded, giving him his very own style. You can usually compare the objects in his drawings to ones in real life, but he gives them their own bent and drooping look. His characters are usually rounded and sometimes furry, and his animals and creatures are often much bigger or smaller than usual, with added legs and other adaptations.

So many people love Dr. Seuss’s stories, and they are still told to children all the time. I think these unique and exciting books will continue to be read for a long time to come. I will certainly always have little bits and pieces stuck in my head, such as “I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them Sam-I-Am.”


Bibliography:

• "Top 10 Highest Selling Dr. Seuss Books." #AmReading, www.amreading.com/2016/07/02/top-10-highest-selling-dr-seuss-books
• "Dr. Seuss." Wikimedia Foundation, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss>.

By Aurora J. A. Pass