Dr. Seuss Facts

Mr. Grinch

Dr. Seuss was born Theodore Geisel in 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts.

His father was the curator of Forest Park Zoo.

After graduating from Dartmouth College, he began a career in advertising,
creating ads for Flit, an insecticide produced by Standard Oil.

The contract with Standard Oil didn't allow Seuss to do commercial art for other companies but it didn't forbid doing children's books and so he wrote To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, using the pen name Dr. Seuss, intending to keep his real name, Theodore Geisel, for more serious work.

Seuss was his middle name and he put Dr. in front of it because his father had always wanted him to be a doctor.

To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street  was rejected by twenty-nine publishers before it was accepted.

He started his Cat in the Hat series when he read an article by the novelist John Hersey who observed that the early readers used in schools were pallid and idiotic. Told that they had to be because they used only words on the Dolch reading list, Seuss took 223 of those words and created a funny, zany book worth reading. Together with his wife Helen Palmer, he launched a whole line of Beginner Books some of which he wrote and illustrated.  Sometimes he wrote under the name of Theo LeSieg (Geisel spelled backwards) and let others illustrate. Still others were done by other authors and illustrators but they all used the same, scholastically approved word lists, and revolutionized children's beginning reading books.

In 1957, Random House published the book HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! The account of the Grinch's transformations from malevolence to kindness was one of Dr. Suess' own favorite stories.

In 1966, at the urging of animator Chuck Jones, the TV special was created, but only after much difficulty in finding a sponsor. Chuck and Ted labored over the drawings, and Ted also delved into the task of writing lyrics with composer Albert Hague.

The unique voice of Boris Karloff continues to bring the Grinch to life. And the lively Who village choir and orchestra extend the sounds of Christmas and goodwill.

Dr. Seuss died in California in 1991, a time of mourning for many of his readers.