You are gonna love this. Trust me.
Theodore Seuss Geisel was not a doctor (although later his Alma mater, Dartmouth, did give him an honorary PhD.) However he is one of the most successful authors in history with over 220 million books sold and counting.
He single-handedly created the market for children's books. Before this kid-lit was limited to school book and lifeless text intended merely to teach reading skills (See Spot run. Run, Spot, run!) Dr. Seuss wrote picture books that kids actually wanted to read. Everyone who followed owes him a debt of gratitude.
But how he got his start writing children's books is a very interesting story. First though let's go back a ways:
Theodore Geisel was a writer on the college humor magazine at Dartmouth, The Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, when his drinking got him fired (this was during prohibition and alcohol was illegal.) Ted didn't let this setback stop him and changed his name to his middle name "Seuss" and continued writing.
During WWII Theodore Geisel drew political cartoons for PM Magazine. These were collected in 1999 in a book called Dr. Seuss Goes to War. Many people were stunned by the remarkably racist view of the world. At least toward the Japanese. What these people in at the end of the century fail to remember is that we were at war with the Japanese at the time and Seuss's cartoons were nowhere near as hateful or racist as many other forms of popular media.
During the 1950's for 15 years he wrote and designed ads for Standard Oil. He coined the well-known (at the time) slogan, "Quick, Henry, the Flit!" Think "Where's the Beef" for an idea of how popular this was in the day.
Then he started writing and drawing children's books. With mixed success. His earliest books are still in print and they are good, but show nothing of the later unique poetic meter and kid friendly illustrations that made him a household name.
Then in 1960 his publisher, Bennett Cerf, made him a bet that would change his life and the lives of countless children for years to come. Mr. Cerf bet Dr. Seuss $50 that he couldn't write a book using only 50 different words. Ted took the bet and wrote Green Eggs and Ham, which became an instant success and all-time classic. Bennett apparently never paid. I'll bet Dr. Seuss never minded.
By the way, not counting names and numbers there are exactly 50 different words in just that last paragraph. Green Eggs and Ham is an amazing feat.
I hope you enjoyed this bit of interesting history.
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