Who was Dr Seuss

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Q.� Early life

A.� He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1925, and went on to Lincoln College, Oxford, with the intention of earning his doctorate and becoming a professor of English. At Oxford he met Helen Palmer and they married in 1927. He did not, however, go on to an academic career.

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Q.� What instead

A.� He returned to the States and began working for a magazine called Judge, a leading humour magazine, producing both cartoons and articles. He also did cartoons for Life, Vanity Fair and Liberty. He continued in much the same way until the Second World War.

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Q.� What then

A.� He joined the army and was sent to Hollywood. As a captain, Geisel would write for Frank Capra's Signal Corps Unit and make documentaries (he won Oscars for Hitler Lives and Design for Death). He also created a cartoon called Gerald McBoing-Boing, which also won him an Oscar. He started using his middle name, prefaced with Dr, as a pseudonym.

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Q.� So how did he get on to children's books

A.� He had some success with three publications - The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, The King's Stilts, and Horton Hatches an Egg. In these, Seuss continuously manipulated language, by creating fantastic and nonsensical words from others.

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Q.� And big success

A. In May 1954, Life published a report about illiteracy among schoolchildren. Children found it difficult to read, the report said, because their books were boring. John Hersey wrote Why do Students Bog Down on the First R and attacked the typical school primer as 'pallid... [with] abnormally courteous, unnaturally clean boys and girls'. Geisel agreed and decided to change all that. Supplied with a vocabulary list of 225 words, he set about creating the primary textbook reader for children.

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Q.� Easy-peasy

A.� No, he found it difficult. He said: 'I was desperate, so I decided to read [the list] once more. The first two words that rhymed would be the title of my book and I'd go from there. I found cat and then I found hat.' The rest, as they say, is history. In fact, Geisel used only 220 of the permitted 225. Nine months later, The Cat in the Hat was published to instant success.

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Q.� Why

A.� It was funny - delightful writing with wonderful pictures. Pictures were published in an unconventional spot red and blue. The Cat was a masterpiece and became an industry. It was so popular, a Beginner Books division of Random House publishers was established and Dr Seuss made president.

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Q.� Next

A.� With his wife, he developed a list of picture books to excite the new reader. Most memorable was Green Eggs and Ham, which is written with a vocabulary of just 50 words - and has become the third bestselling book in the English language. After the Cat in the Hat, Dr Seuss published 31 more children's books and received many honours, including a Pulitzer Prize and several Emmy Awards for his television specials. Theodore Geisel died on 24 September 1991.

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by Steve Cunningham

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