Dr. Seuss

The film adaptation of "The Lorax" (The Lorax (2012)) was released on what would have been his 108th birthday.

Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, Vol. 132, pp. 162-167 (as Theodor Seuss Geisel). Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale (2005).

Pictured on a USA 37¢ commemorative postage stamp, issued March 2, 2004 (100th anniversary of his birth). The stamp also depicts six characters created by him: the Cat in the Hat; the Grinch; the Glotz (or the identical Klotz) from the book "Oh Say Can You Say?" and three characters from the book "I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew", the Skritz, the unnamed "young fellow", and the Skrink.

His "Cat in the Hat" is shown on a USA 33¢ commemorative postage stamp, in the sheet of stamps commemorating the 1950s in the Celebrate the Century Series, issued May 26, 1999. The inscription reads "Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat".

The University of California-San Diego renamed its main library in 1995 the Geisel Library in honor of he and his wife Audrey, who were La Jolla residents. The library maintains an 8,500-item collection of the works of Dr. Seuss, over a period from 1919-91.

Even after his death in Autumn of 1991, Dr. Seuss continues to be the best-selling author of children's books in the world.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 and three Academy Awards, Seuss overall was the author and illustrator of 44 children's books, some of which have been made into audio-cassettes, animated television specials, and videos for people of all ages.

In the late 1980s he wanted to get his book "The Cat in the Hat" made into a movie; his choices for the role of the title character were Robin Williams, Steve Martin, John Candy or Eddie Murphy. In 2003 his book was made into a movie with none of them playing the title character.

An unpublished 1973 manuscript for "My Many-Colored Days" had no illustrations. He wrote that he hoped "a great color artist who will not be dominated by me" would illustrate the book, with a new art style and pattern of thinking. The book was published in 1999 with abstract artwork by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher.

In the following years, Geisel wrote many more books, both in his new simplified-vocabulary style and using his older, more elaborate technique, and including such favorites as Green Eggs and Ham and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966).

In 1966, with the help of eminent & longtime cartoonist, Chuck Jones, The Grinch was immediately adapted into an animated film & Boris Karloff was the narrator, (& as the evil Grinch, that turned away from its bitterness, as the special begins) of the half-hour Christmas animation special.

The resulting book, The Cat in the Hat, was published in 1957 and was described by one critic as a "tour de force. " The success of The Cat in the Hat cemented Geisel's place in children's literature.

Following World War 2, Geisel and his first wife Helen moved to La Jolla, California, where he wrote and published several children's books in the coming years, including If I Ran the Zoo and Horton Hears a Who! A major turning point in Geisel's career came when, in response to a 1954 Life magazine article that criticized children's reading levels, Houghton Mifflin and Random House asked him to write a children's primer using 220 vocabulary words.

During World War II he joined the United States Army and was sent to Hollywood. Capt. Geisel would write for Frank Capra's Signal Corps Unit (for which he won the Legion of Merit) and do documentaries. Geisel received an Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Documentary (Short Subject) in 1945 for his writing and producing the propaganda piece Hitler Lives (1945) (a/k/a Your Job in Germany (1945)) and in 1947 for Best Documentary (Feature) for Design for Death (1947)).

In 1942 he was placed in charge of the Animation Division of the Armed Forces Motion Picture unit by Col. Frank Capra. Under his administration a series of instructional cartoons featuring the character Private Snafu (an unofficial acronym for "Situation Normal, All [Fouled] Up") were produced from 1942-45. Snafu's concept and name were created by Capra, and the character designed by Arthur Heinemann and Chuck Jones. Interestingly enough, the voice of Pvt. Snafu is none other than Mel Blanc, the voice of most of the characters from the Warner Brothers stable. The cartoons were animated by Warner Bros., United Productions of America (UPA) and Harman-Ising Studios. The films had a unique saltiness to dialog and content (with the occasional "Hell" or "Damn"), but since these were instructional films made for the biweekly "Army-Navy Screen Magazine" newsreel, they were exempt from Hays Office restrictions. Although uncredited, Seuss wrote a few of the cartoons, since much of the dialog is written in "Seussian" rhyme, and several characters resemble the illustrations from his books. A second series of instructional cartoons for the Navy, featuring Private Snafu's brother, Seaman Tarfu (an acronym for "Things Are Really [Fouled] Up"), was planned, but the end of World War II brought an end to the series, and only one of these shorts was produced. A total of 24 "Private Snafu" shorts were produced.

During the early 1940s he was a political cartoonist for "PM", a daily News York newspaper that was noted for its left-wing politics, superior production quality and the fact that it carried no advertising. A book of his political cartoons was published a few years ago.

Seuss's first children's book, titled "And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street", hit the market in 1937, changing the face of children's literature forever.

It was rejected 27 times before it was finally published by Vanguard Press in 1937.

Attended and graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, class of 1925.

Attended and graduated from Springfield Central High School in Springfield, MA, class of 1921.

Acclaimed writer, Dr. Seuss was born Theodor Geisel in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Wednesday, March 2nd, 1904. After attending Dartmouth College and Oxford University, he began a career in advertising. His advertising cartoons, featuring Quick, Henry, the Flit!, appeared in several leading American magazines. Dr.