Dr. Seuss, an illustrator and a writer, is the author of several widely known and very popular rhyming children's books. Dr. Seuss was born Theodore Seuss Geisel in 1904. He was educated at Dartmouth College and went on to Oxford University, where he met his wife, Helen Palmer.
Though his writing career began with published work in a humor magazine titled Judge and his illustrations and writing also appeared in Life and Vanity Fair, Dr. Seuss is best known for his children's books, especially the wildly popular The Cat in the Hat. He crafted his first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, in 1936, and 43 publishers rejected it.
Dr. Seuss' rise to fame wouldn't begin for nearly 20 more years. In 1954, Life published a report about literacy problems with school-aged children and cited that part of the problem was that the available material was boring to kids. In fact, the beginning readers of that time lacked zeal, especially when compared to what would come. Inspired by this, Dr. Seuss worked with a list of 220 commonly seen words and wrote a story that contained them all. The result was The Cat in the Hat which achieved instant success and became one of the best known children's books of all time.
Dr. Seuss continued his success at crafting whimsical, entertaining children's books through a combination of rhyming and use of high frequency words with titles like Green Eggs and Ham, One Fish, Two Fish..., Fox in Socks, and There's a Wocket in my Pocket. The stories both entertain and engage early readers, and Dr. Seuss's work is credited with changing and improving the literacy rate among young children.
Dr. Seuss is equally known for his creation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Published in 1957, the story of a grumpy green sourpuss called the Grinch whose heart grew because of a "who"? has become a holiday tradition. The animated classic special has been airing on US television each holiday season since 1966, and the story made the big screen in 2000 with a live action remake starring Jim Carrey. In similar fashion, The Cat in the Hat was also made into a feature length, live action movie starring Mike Myers that debuted theatrically in 2003.
In 1991, Dr. Seuss died, leaving behind an eternal legacy written in the pages of his books and seen through the eyes of every child who has ever picked up a Dr. Seuss book. Theodore Seuss Geisel may be gone, but he has left the world with immortal characters like the Grinch, Mr. Knox, and of course, the mischievous Cat in the Hat to carry on his work of helping kids learn to read and enjoy it.