Today marks what would have been Dr. Seuss' 107th birthday.
Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss created many characters that have delighted children around the world. His most iconic was the Grinch, and the Cat in the Hat.
Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, who managed his family's brewery and supervised Springfield's public park system. He attended Dartmouth College in 1921, joining the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, a humor magazine. After being removed from extra-cuirrcicular activities because of drinking gin while National Prohibnition laws were in effect, he assumed the pen name Seuss. He later entered Lincoln College, Oxford and met and married Helen Palmer in 1927.
He submitted humorous articles to Judge, Saturday Evening Post, Vanity Fair and Liberty. He made money by working on drawing advertisements for the likes of General Electric, NBC and Standard Oil and many more. It was at this time that he wrote a few children's books.
In WWII, he began drawing political cartoons, denouncing Hitler and Mussolini and isolationists. He then worked on posters for the Treasury Department and the War Production Board.
Later in his life, he moved to La Jolla, California and returned to creating children's books.
Horton Hatches the Egg(1940), If I Ran the Zoo, (1950), Horton Hears a Who!(1954), If I Ran the Circus (1956),"The Cat in the Hat", How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1957) and Green Eggs and Ham (1960)
in 1954, Geisel was asked to create a well loved book using 250 words that 1st graders should recognize. He returned with Cat in the Hat.
In 1968, Geisel married the woman he had been having an affair with, after his wife committed suicide the year earlier. He then devoted most of his time to writing children's books.
President Obama named March 2nd "Read Across America" day in his honor.
Dr. Seuss died in 1991 at the age of 87.
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