“The more that you read,
the more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
the more places you’ll go.”
1) If Dr. Seuss were alive he’d be 107 years old today.
2) Dr. Seuss’ first book “And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street” was rejected 27 times before it found a publisher.
3) Dr. Seuss never had children and according to his wife Audrey he was slightly afraid of them and “couldn’t just sit down on the floor and play with them”.
4) Seuss was Mrs. Geisel’s (his mother) maiden name.
5) During his service in the US Army Signal Corps Geisel worked with a wonderful group who would later become animation pioneers such as legendary Warner Bros. animator Chuck Jones and renowned voice actor Mel Blanc.
6) Dr. Seuss dropped out of Oxford and never received his doctorate.
7) Dr. Seuss wrote “The Cat in the Hat” because he thought children stories were too boring.
8) “Green Eggs and Ham” was written as a bet between Geisel and his publisher to come up with a story which uses exactly 50 words (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).
9) “Yertle the Turtle” is a political commentary about…Hitler.
10) The Grinch’s voice in the cartoon is provided by no other then noted actor Boris Karloff. Dr. Seuss didn’t like the casting because he thought Karloff, who made his fame playing Frankestien’s monster in the classic 1931 horror classic, would scare children. The voice behind “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” was supplied by Thurl Ravenscroft who got no on-screen credit and is better known as the man behind Tony the Tiger.
Sources:
- 10 facts about Dr. Seuss (http://kindergartengs.wordpress.com/2008/03/05/10-facts-about-dr-seuss/)
- Dr. Seuss Trivia (http://weeklyworldnews.com/headlines/6611/dr-seuss-trivia/)
- Dr. Seuss’ Birthday Quick Facts (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7812728/dr_seuss_birthday_quick_facts.html?cat=38)
- Top 10 Dr. Seuss facts you may not know (http://www.abebooks.com/blog/index.php/2009/01/27/top-10-dr-seuss-facts-you-may-not-know/)
- All About Dr. Seuss (http://www.catinthehat.org/history.htm)
8 Comments
Wow. You taught me quite a bit just now.
Funny that he feared kids yet his books are beloved by kids everywhere.
I’m a fan– I credit Seuss books with helping me learn to read when I struggled to learn in 1st grade.
I still have all my Seuss books and today I read 3 to my little boy’s Kindergarten class. They had never seen such falling apart books– they are almost 40 yrs old and have had a hard life– wouldn’t toss them for the world though!
Hi Lesa, we have books which came over from generations of children and you’re right – they are still well loved and well made.
What an interesting post! I love little facts like this (and I love Dr. Seuss!) 🙂
Ahh I love Dr. Suess! This is a great post! Lots of interesting facts. I just can’t believe that he didn’t love children, but all of his books are so loved by children. Too funny! Anyway, great post!
Happy reading!
BrandiHeather
Thanks for the Seuss trivia! Even now I love his books.
Wow! Great to learn so many neat facts about Seuss. Thanks for sharing these and the links!
He was quite the author, and my children (now adults) and I have fond memories of my reading to them, and now they read to their children..my grandies.