Happy Birthday Theodor "Ted" Seuss Geisel

Today is the anniversary of the birth of a man I consider to fit the definition of a genius. Unmatched in the area of children's books, he is credited with causing the "death of Dick and Jane". While I won't bore you with the everyday facts about him...allow me to share some interesting trivia I found about this "silly looking fella".

* He is NOT a doctor of any sort. He picked this title because his daddy always wanted a doctor in the family. Obviously, Seuss is his middle name (and his mom's maiden name). However, Dr. Seuss pronounced "Seuss" as "soice" (as it rhymes with "voice"). His grandparents were German immigrants and thus the pronunciation. He said he was saving his real name to use on more serious works.

* He first became "known" as an ad writer/illustrator for Flit, a common insecticide years ago.

* His first book was And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. He wrote it 1937 when returning home on an ocean voyage. He wrote it to the "rhythm of the ship's engines". This book was turned down by 27 publishers initially. His grandparents actually lived on Mulberry Street.

* The Cat in the Hat was his best selling book. It was written in response to a concern of illiteracy among school kids. His publisher made a list of "new-reader vocabulary words" and asked Dr. Seuss to write a book from the list. Thus, The Cat in the Hat was born using just over 200 of the words.

* Dr. Seuss is believed to be the originator of the word "nerd". It appeared in his 1950 book If I Ran the Zoo.

* Green Eggs and Ham uses only 50 different words in total. A publisher bet Dr. Seuss that he couldn't write a book with just 50 different words. Dr. Seuss won the bet and Green Eggs and Ham became his second best seller.

* If you look closely, it is believed that Dr. Seuss really only draws ONE human face on his characters. He just alters them slightly from person (or thing) to person.

* His last book was Oh! The Places You'll Go!

* Books that he wrote but did NOT illustrate show the author as: Theo LeSieg (his name backwards).

* His books have been translated into 20 languages and Braille. 1 in 4 American children receive a Dr. Seuss book as their very first book.

*Several of his books indirectly address social issues of the time. Some have even been a bit controversial.

* He never won a Caldecott Medal or Newberry Award.

So now we're all educated on the man behind the wonderfully rhyming books with silly made-up words. Much more to it than I ever thought.

"Think left and think right, think low and think high,
Oh, the things you can think up if only you try!"
--Dr. Seuss