Dr. Seuss: War Propagandist

Dr. Seuss, author and illustrator of many of America's favorite children's books, played a little-remembered role during World War II; he was one of our most important war propagandists, creating hundreds of anti-Nazi and anti-Japanese war posters and political cartoons, all in the traditional Dr. Seuss style.

Dr. Seuss was born Theodor Seuss Geisel to a German family in Springfield, Massachusetts. After being removed from extracurricular activities in college -- including the college paper -- for bad behavior, he started signing his work "Seuss" so he could continue writing and drawing. After college, he continued this habit, signing his first major work for The Judge "Dr. Seuss." He also used the pen name Theo LeSieg for books he wrote but allowed others to illustrate.

By the late 1930s, Seuss had made a name for himself with his humorous articles and illustrations in The Judge, Saturday Evening Post, Vanity Fair, Life, and Liberty. He was already growing political, creating cartoons poking fun at the Technocratic movement. Not until 1937, when he'd traveled by ocean to Europe, was he inspired by the rhythm of the ship's engines to write his first children's book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.

He had just started becoming successful in this area when World War II began. Seuss drew more than 400 political cartoons opposing Hitler, Mussolini, and American isolationists, all in the left-wing New York daily PM. Many of his cartoons would be seen as racist today, depicting Japanese-Americans as traitors or fifth-columnists.

Most of his cartoons, though, supported Roosevelt's calls for rationing and other civilian war contributions. He also drew cartoons criticizing the Republican Party, investigations of Communists, those who attacked President Roosevelt's conduct of the war, and anything else he thought contributed to American disunity or which did not support the war effort and defeat of the Nazis.

By 1942, the government had tapped his talents to draw war posters, and a year later made him commander of the Animation Department for the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Force - where he produced primarily propaganda films supporting the war effort as well as Army training films. He spent some time developing nonmilitary films as well, and won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Animated) in 1950 for a film called Gerald McBoingBoing.

Seuss is remembered primarily, of course, for his dozens of children's books, most of which were written with limited vocabulary to help little ones learn how to read. But it would be a disservice to his memory to not recall the immense effort he put into the American defeat of the Nazis and Japanese imperialism during World War II.