Biography of Dr. Seuss

For decades, the infamous stories of The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Green Eggs and Ham have plagued the lives of countless children. The author and illustrator of 44 rhyming tales was Theodor Seuss Geisel, but he ised the pen name of Dr. Seuss.

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. After attaining his degree from Darmouth University, Geisel pursued a doctorate in literature from Lincoln University in Oxford. While in Oxford, Geisel met and married Helen Palmer and moved to the United States without earning his doctorate degree. Seuss places the "Dr." in his name in order to acknowledfe his father's unfulfilled hopes that he would one day attain his doctorate degree from Oxford University.

In 1937, while Seuss was returning from an ocean voyage to Europe, the rhythm of the ship's engines inspired the poem that became his first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. As World War II began, Dr. Seuss turned to political cartoons. After the war, however, Seuss returned to writing children's books and wrote what many consider to be his finest works, which include favorites: If I Ran the Zoo, Scrambled Eggs Super!, On Beyond Zebra!, If I Ran the Circus, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

On September 24, 1991, Seuss died in La Jolla, California after fighting illness for several years. In 2002, the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden opened in his birthplace of Springfield, Massachusetts, featuring sculptures of Dr. Seuss and many of his characters.


Basic Information pulled from wikipedia.org