Seuss learned to always listen to his publishing house team. With that kind of fate kicking off his success, the now-published Dr. Getty Images He was challenged to write a 'story that first-graders can't put down' Seuss talking with a group of children while holding a copy of 'The Cat in the Hat' in La Jolla, California, on April 25, 1957. “If I’d been going down the other side of Madison Avenue, I would be in the dry-cleaning business!”ĭr. “That’s one of the reasons I believe in luck,” he said, according to Seussville. One day, when he was walking down the street, he literally ran into an old classmate who happened to work for Vanguard Press - and the book was published in 1937. The young “doctor” showed his determination early on when he faced a whopping 27 rejections from book publishers for his first children’s book And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street. He also wrote under the name Theo LeSieg since the surname was his own reversed. While attending Dartmouth College, he started writing for a college humor magazine called Jack-O-Lantern, using his mom’s German maiden name Seuss and eventually granting himself a doctorate title, giving birth to his pseudonym Dr. He often visited the Springfield Zoo with his dad and loved pencil sketching the animals.

Seuss' Inspiration for the Grinch? Himself! Seuss' first book was rejected by 27 publishersīorn Theodor Seuss Geisel in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 2, 1904, the author was known as “Ted” by those closest to him while growing up on 74 Fairfield Street. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” After all, he did write: “The more that you read, the more things you will know. In fact, both The Cat in the Hat, published in 1957, and Green Eggs and Ham, published in 1960 were the results of publishers daring the author to write with a limited number of words.īut the reason behind the tight vocabulary wasn’t all fun and games - it was to inspire young children to develop a passion for the written word and to enjoy reading. Seuss had a magical way of taking merging animal antics with silly words and turning them into poetically memorable children’s books.īehind that fun-loving exterior was a man with a bit of a competitive edge to prove that he could conquer any challenge.

From The Cat in the Hat to Horton Hears a Who!, Dr.

Green eggs and ham on a train