Dr. Seuss Birthday Honored by Readers and Grinches Alike

Dr. Seuss's birthday is today, as the writer would have been 105 years old today. Dr Seuss had his birthday on March 2, 1904, presumably outside of Who-ville. Theodor Seuss Geisel came from Springfield, Massachusetts, giving the first case of iconic entertainment value coming from a town called Springfield. For approximately 70 of those 105 since his birthday, Dr. Seuss has revolutionized the way children read, and the words they read.

Theodor Geisel was inspired from a very young age, watching his mother work at a bakery. Her way of reciting the names of pies, and using those mnemonics to help him go to sleep, gave birth to the famous Dr. Seuss rhyming scheme.

Geisel gave birth to his name out of necessity while at Dartmouth University. After his fraternity threw a party in violation of school rules, Geisal had to write for the school's humor newspaper under a pseudonym. "Seuss" was a term that no one outside of his classmates would attribute to him.

By his 33'rd birthday, the future Dr. Seuss had worked as an illustrator for advertisements, and illustrated political cartoons. Seuss had done more as an artist than a writer, but went ahead to write his first children's book "And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street." The book finally got accepted by a publisher on the 28th try.

Dr. Seuss's next book was a little story called "The Cat in the Hat." This tale about a troublemaking cat was the kickoff to the legend of Dr. Seuss. "The Cat in the Hat" made the Seuss formula famous, and has lived on for many decades - even surviving the attempts of Mike Myers to utterly destroy it.

For the next several decades, Dr. Seuss gave birth to the one fish, the two fish, the red fish, the blue fish, Sam I Am, The Lorax, Horton, The Whos, and the Grinch. Many of those characters are on display on the front page of Google today, as it commemorates Seuss's birthday.

All around the country, schools and libraries - at least the ones not closed by snow in the Eastern seaboard - are honoring Seuss's birthday. Read Across America is sponsoring Seuss readings, with pledges for children and parents to read and to encourage reading,

Dr. Seuss left behind 44 books to read, and a brand new language for the literary world. He died in 1991 at the age of 87. The hearts of young readers have continued to grow three sizes a day ever since.

Sources

Finding Dulcinea- "Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss, Children's Book Writer/Illustrator" www.findingdulcinea.com/features/profiles/s/dr-seuss.html

Post Chronicle- "Google Celebrates Dr. Seuss Birthday" www.postchronicle.com/news/original/article_212211818.shtml