On this date in 1904, Theodor Seuss Geisel, a great American writer and cartoonist was born. You may better recognize his pen name Dr. Seuss. The rhyming text and outlandish creatures are trademarks for the 44 children's books that he wrote and illustrated, including The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. You may not know that Geisel also used the pen name Theo. LeSieg (which is Geisel spelled backwards) for the books he wrote but were illustrated by others.
In 1954 after Life magazine published a report on illiteracy among school children concluding that children weren't learning to read because the books were boring, Seuss' publisher challenged him. The publisher gave Seuss a list of 400 words that were felt important and asked him to cut it to 250 and write a book using only those words. Nine months later Seuss completed the Cat in the Hat, which is now ranked as the #9 on the all-time best selling children's hardcover book list.
There's also a rumor that in 1960 Bennett Cerf bet $50 that Seuss couldn't write an entire book using only fifty different words. The result is the book Green Eggs and Ham. This book is ranked as #4 on the list of all-time best-selling children's hardcover books. You may be curious what was on the list of 50 words. Here they are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.
The Dr. Seuss books achieved significant international success and remain very popular with children. Although Seuss devoted most of his life to writing children's books, he never had any children himself. He once said (in reference to children), You make 'em, I amuse 'em.
Here are some other quotes that are attributed to Dr Seuss. You may have said some of these things yourself not realizing that they originated with Dr Seuss:
I read many of the Dr Seuss books as a child. I looked forward to the package arriving in the mail to our house with the Dr. Seuss books. I was puzzled why they stopped coming when I was young, and learning years later that the subscription was canceled by my parents. I think now how nice it would be to have that entire collection!
Later this month, I'll be looking forward to seeing the new movie based on Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who. You can watch the movie trailer here:
As posted on YouTube by themovieinsider.com
In 1954 after Life magazine published a report on illiteracy among school children concluding that children weren't learning to read because the books were boring, Seuss' publisher challenged him. The publisher gave Seuss a list of 400 words that were felt important and asked him to cut it to 250 and write a book using only those words. Nine months later Seuss completed the Cat in the Hat, which is now ranked as the #9 on the all-time best selling children's hardcover book list.
There's also a rumor that in 1960 Bennett Cerf bet $50 that Seuss couldn't write an entire book using only fifty different words. The result is the book Green Eggs and Ham. This book is ranked as #4 on the list of all-time best-selling children's hardcover books. You may be curious what was on the list of 50 words. Here they are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.
The Dr. Seuss books achieved significant international success and remain very popular with children. Although Seuss devoted most of his life to writing children's books, he never had any children himself. He once said (in reference to children), You make 'em, I amuse 'em.
Here are some other quotes that are attributed to Dr Seuss. You may have said some of these things yourself not realizing that they originated with Dr Seuss:
- I meant what I said and I said what I meant.
- How did it get so late so soon?
- You're in pretty good shape for the shape you are in.
- Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.
- Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
- Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.
- You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go.
- From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.
I read many of the Dr Seuss books as a child. I looked forward to the package arriving in the mail to our house with the Dr. Seuss books. I was puzzled why they stopped coming when I was young, and learning years later that the subscription was canceled by my parents. I think now how nice it would be to have that entire collection!
Later this month, I'll be looking forward to seeing the new movie based on Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who. You can watch the movie trailer here:
As posted on YouTube by themovieinsider.com
Image credit: www.t-shirt.co.uk
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