A S hort Introduction to Dr . Seuss Dr. Sarah Keller [email protected]
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Transcript of A S hort Introduction to Dr . Seuss Dr. Sarah Keller [email protected]
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"I like nonsense -- it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope... and that enables you to laugh at all of life's realities.”
THEODOR SEUSS GEISEL
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The Basics:• Date of birth:March 2, 1904• Place of birth:Springfield, Massachusetts• Date of death:September 24, 1991• Place of death:La Jolla, California• Married to:
• Helen Palmer Geisel, 1927-1967• Audrey Stone Geisel, 1968-1991
• Education:• B.A., Dartmouth College, 1925• Oxford University (no degree)
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Awards & Recognition• 3 Academy Award–winning films (1946;
1947; 1951)• Peabody Award (animated specials,
1971)• 2 Emmys (1977; 1982)• Legion of Merit• 3 Caldecott Honor Awards (1947; 1949;
1950)• Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters
from his alma mater, Dartmouth• Laura Ingalls Wilder Award (1980)• Pulitzer Prize (1984)• New York Library Literary Lion (1986)
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Ted Geisel (Politics, imagination, & talent) = Dr. Seuss• Editor of Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern (first signed
his name “Seuss”)• Political cartoonist for Judge & Saturday Evening
Post• 15 years in advertising for Standard Oil (Quick
Henry, the Flit!)• WW II - Political cartoons for P.M.• 1942 - drew posters for Treasury Department
and War Production Board• Joined army in 1943 - commander of Animation
Dept of the first Motion Pictures Unit of the United States Army Air Forces.
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The Political Dr. Seuss:Dr. Richard H. Minear (Professor at University of Massachusetts)• Politics + Talent:• Springfield Library and Museum Association:
• Special Exhibition: The Political Dr. Seuss; March 11 through October 16, 2000
• “There is a disconnect between what we usually think of as Dr. Seuss and the content of the cartoons”
• 400 political cartoons included:• Sneetch-type character• Horton-esque elephants• Nizzard-like birds• Prototype of Yertle the Turtle
• Cartoons “lambasted” isolationism, racism, anti-Semitism, Hitler, Mussolini, the Japanese and the conservative forces in American Politics
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And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937)
Imagination + Talent:
• Written while traveling on luxury liner M. S. Kungsholm
• Rhythm of the engines led to the rhythm and rhymes of the book
• Rejected by 27 publishing companies• Friend at Vanguard (division of Houghton Mifflin)
showed manuscript and illustrations to decision-makers at Vanguard
• Book was well received by librarians and reviewers
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“Like most works of merit, the works of Dr. Seuss have been over analyzed; many scholars have found devices where there are truly none to be found. For the most part, Ted enjoyed writing entertaining books that encouraged children to read.”
seussville.com
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The Five Hundred Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1938)Bartholomew and the Oobleck (1949)
Combination of Politics, Imagination, Talent really begins:
• “500 Hats” questions the arbitrariness of power• Pits a simple but imaginative man
against an easily threatened king• Bartholomew returns in a second book to
save the kingdom from the threatening “oobleck” invented by the king’s magicians (again a misuse of the king’s power) and teaches an ecological lesson
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Horton Hears a Who! (1954)
• An allegory or parable for the situation of Japan after Hiroshima - points to the potential dangers of people’s lack of imagination
• Began teaching tolerance to generations of kids - “A person’s a person, no matter how small”
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How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1957)Cat in the Hat (1957)• The cat’s famous red and white
striped hat has a political predecessor in the top hat worn by Uncle Sam in Seuss’s wartime cartoons
• Seuss’s personal values are also apparent in the Grinch, a warning against materialism (the Whos are in this one too!)
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Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories (1958) • “Yertle the Turtle”
• A cautionary tale against dictators• Dr. Seuss himself said that “Yertle” was
modeled after the rise of Hitler and explained his feelings about fascism and Nazis in particular.
• Two other stories in the book share the theme of vanity:• "Gertrude McFuzz" • "The Big Brag”
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The Sneetches and Other Stories (1961) • “The Sneetches” -
• A plea for racial tolerance• Parable for the cycle of fashion and how
snobbery and insecurity drive consumerism to consumers' own detriment
• “The Zax” • Can be seen as a parody of all political
hardliners• A lesson about the importance of
compromise. • "What Was I Scared Of?”
• Teaches the lesson that you should not be afraid of things with which you are not familiar.
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I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew (1965)• The hero of this hilarious tale
discovers that in attempting to avoid trouble, one often encounters even greater difficulties.
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The Lorax (1971)• Contains a strong
environmental message. • Is said to have been Dr.
Seuss's personal favorite among his books
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Marvin K. Mooney, Will You Please Go Now! (1972)
• Not written as a “political” book• Political columnist Art Buchwald
criticized Ted for never having written a political book
• Seuss crossed out Marvin’s name and wrote “Richard M. Nixon”
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The Butter Battle Book (1984)
• Perhaps the most controversial of his books
• Based on the Cold War and nuclear deterrence
• Remained for six months on The New York Times Bestseller List -- for adults.
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Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (1990)
• The last book written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss
• The book is concerned with life and its challenges - meaningful to both adults and children
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Daisy-Head Mayzie (1994)
• The tale of young Mayzie McGrew, who one day mysteriously sprouts a daisy from her head
• Mayzie learns the hard way that love is more important than fame and fortune.
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Dr. Seuss & Reading• The Cat in the Hat (1957)• Green Eggs and Ham
(1960)• Random House’s Beginner
Books division
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Shortly before his death, whenTed was asked if there was anythingleft unsaid, he pondered the questionand finally responded:
“The best slogan I can think of to leave with the U.S.A. would be: ‘We can . . . and we’ve got to . . . do better than this.’”
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References:
http://www.seussville.com/seussentennial/resources1.html
http://www.nea.org/readacross/resources/seussbiocomp.html
http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/1aa/1aa291.htm
Morgan, J. & Morgan, N. (1996). Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel. New York: Da Capo Press.
Krull, K. (2004). The boy on Fairfield Street: How Ted Geisel grew up to become Dr. Seuss. New York: Random House.