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Dr. Seuss

by Tori from Riley

Dr.Seuss was an illustrator and author for children books, he made books such as; 'And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street', 'Green Eggs and Ham', and 'One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish', and many more, these books were popular with people of all ages, from kids to adults. His mother used to work in a diner and pretty much all of the words rhymed and had a 'beat' to it, This is how Dr. Seuss made his books. The rhymes were fun and easy to read, not to mention the words in his books were three to five letters long. He drew his all of the pictures in his books; he started drawing at a young age. Not only are the words fun to read, but the pictures are very interesting to look at!

Theodor Seuss Geisel was Dr. Seuss' real name, he used his middle name as his pen name, for all of the books he wrote, before he was a writer, Seuss had been going to college, and he was on the newspaper for his school. He was studying to be a professor for Oxford University, in London. Ted was soon kicked off the newspaper, because of a party that he and his friends threw on campus. For doing so, as a punishment, they kicked him off. But he still found a way on the newspaper; he would submit pictures in the newspaper, under his pen name "Dr. Seuss". After a bit, he met Helen Palmer, another American in his writing class. She saw his drawings, and told him, that he should drop out of his current class and go to be a famous artist instead. He took her advice, and years later, he asked Helen to marry him.

Ted worked for a company called Standard Oil; he was making animated campaigns for the company's product Flit. Another company, called Fly Tox, had offered him the same contract as Standard Oil had, being the goofy man he is, he flipped a coin, and he said "Quick Henry, the Flit!" that was originally Ted's idea. He decided to work for Standard Oil, the company he first wanted to work for anyway. 

As the German and Japanese war was coming up, Ted wanted to help his country, even though he was too old to actually serve in the military, but he signed up and, he got a position as helping train new recruits by making a movie, others thought that the animated movie wouldn't help, but it was the exact opposite, it helped the new recruits a lot, because they understood what Private Snafu was going through. 

Ted then started to submit his drawings into magazines such as; Vanity Life, Fair, and Judge, a company that was making a book called Boners, called Ted to see if he would illustrate the book for them, he had agreed, and although the book didn't go so well (the pictures were the only good part of the book though), Ted did not see this as a "set back", instead, he saw it as his first big break. He then wrote his first book called And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street, he had turned into publishers, but every time he turned it in, they had rejected him, about twenty-seven companies had rejected him, he turned to a friend who worked for a publishing company, and his friend helped him get his first book published, it was a great hit, and best seller, it still is to this day. 

After quite some time, a sad occurrence happened to Ted, his wife Helen had gotten ill and had passed away. He then married an old friend of his named Audrey.

Ted had many successes in his life; he got two Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and a Pulitzer Prize. He is famous for about forty- four published books that are illustrated and written children's books. His books have been published in more than fifteen different languages, at the time of his death, more than two hundred million copies of his books were sold all over the world, next to the Bible. He had inspired his readers to embrace their imagination, and enjoy the strange and fun experiences that life has to offer. The last book he wrote before he died on September 24, 1991, was; Oh!  The Places You'll Go!

Dr. Seuss has inspired many kids to be successful writers, or even artist. He basically told them to always use their imaginations. Have fun with whatever life throws at you. And just to be yourself.

Page created on 9/27/2013 12:00:00 AM

Last edited 9/27/2013 12:00:00 AM

The beliefs, viewpoints and opinions expressed in this hero submission on the website are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs, viewpoints and opinions of The MY HERO Project and its staff.

Related Links

Dr. Seuss Biography - Describes all of Seuss's life
Cat in the Hat - All about Seuss and the accomplishments of his books