These days a lot of people know the story. Marco’s father instructs him to keep his eyes peeled for interesting sights on the way to and from school, but all Marco sees is a boring old horse and a wagon. It would be more exciting if he could report that he saw a zebra pulling a wagon. No, better yet, a zebra pulling a blue and gold chariot. Or how about a reindeer, which might be happier pulling a sled. Or how about an elephant with a ruby-bedecked rajah on the top? “Say! That makes a story that no one can beat, when I say that I saw it on Mulberry Street.”

It is a classic book. It was rejected by over two dozen publishers before it finally made it into print in 1937. It was the beginning of a children’s book career that took off, but it was a slow start. It was twenty more years, before readers could open the book and read: “The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day. I sat there with Sally, we sat there we two. And I said, ‘How I wish we had something to do!’” The Cat in the Hat was more than a children’s book. It was a classic. I still have the copy that was in our house for reading to the smaller children. Ours isn’t the 1957 version, but one from a Dr. Seuss young readers book club.

I’m guessing that my parent’s didn’t know the origin of Dr. Seuss’ pen name. Theodor Seuss Geisel was named for his parents. His father was Theodor Robert Geisel. The senior Geisel was a successful brewmaster. The younger Geisel got his mother’s maiden name for a middle name. Henrietta Seuss Geisel isn’t a name that easily rolls of the tongue, but you can see how someone with that name might think that Theodor Seuss Geisel is a perfect moniker for a son. The boy was very intelligent and as soon as he completed high school he headed off to college at Dartmouth.

Did I mention that his father was a brewmaster? Did I mention that it was during prohibition? Those two facts came together in an awkward moment – one that is so common in contemporary college that it might not be remembered. Geisel was a gifted writer and soon he ascended to the position of editor of the Dartmouth College humor magazine, Jack-O-Lantern. But he was a college student. And his father was a brewmaster and it was during prohibition. So when he and a few of his friends were caught drinking in his dorm room it was a scandal. Drinking was illegal! He lost his position as editor of the magazine. In fact he was kicked off of the magazine staff and prohibited from participating in it in any way. Creative guy that he was, he began to contribute articles under the name “Seuss.” The name stuck.

After he graduated from Dartmouth, he went off to England to study at Oxford University. His plan was to become a professor. Life plans sometimes don’t take in to account the details. The detail in Geisel’s life was that he fell in love with Helen Palmer. They were married, he dropped out of Oxford and the couple returned to the United States. He had stories and articles published in Life and Vanity Fair. In the July 1927 issue of The Saturday Evening Post there appeared one of his cartoons under the name “Seuss.” That cartoon got him a job with the New York weekly, Judge. From there he went to the advertising department of Standard Oil, which provided steady income for him for then next 15 years.

By then Vanguard Press decided to take a chance on “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” after 27 other publishers turned it down.

During the War, Geisel served with the Signal Corps, making animated training films and drawing posters for the Treasury Department and the War Production Board. After the war, he and Helen purchased an old observation tower in La Jolla, California. It was there that he settled into full-time writing, working a minimum of eight hours a day with occasional breaks to tend his garden. He published “If I Ran the Zoo” and “Horton Hears a Who.”

Concern was raised over the ability of children to read in the early 1950’s. The baby boomers didn’t seem to have the vocabulary needed. Life magazine ran an article criticizing children’s reading levels and blamed in part the tired old readers that were in use. I know. I was one of those kids: “See Dick Run. Run Dick Run.”

Using 220 vocabulary words chosen by educators, Geisel put together “The Cat in the Hat.” After that book was a success, followed by “The Cat in the Hat Comes Back,” Dr. Seuss was off and running. There were lots of classic lines to follow:

“I do not like them in a box. I do not like them with a fox. I do not like them in a house. I do not like them with a mouse. I do not like them here or there. I do not like them anywhere. I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-am.”

“’All mine!’ Yertle cried. ‘Oh, the things I now rule! I’m the king of a cow! And I’m the king of a mule! I’m the king of a house! And, what’s more, beyond that I’m the king of a blueberry bush and a cat! I’m Yertle the Turtle! O marvelous me! For I am the ruler of all that I see!”

“No wait a minute Mr. Socks Fox! When a fox is in the bottle where the tweetle beetles battle with the paddles in a puddle on a noodle-eating poodle. This is what they call . . . a tweetle beetle noodle poodle bottles paddled muddied duddied fuddied wuddied fox in sockx, sir!”

Say that quickly three times. I know. I used to practice Seuss so I could read it quickly to our children. That just might be the magic of Seuss. He wrote text that is simply fun to read out loud. The adults got hooked on saying the words, the children got hooked on looking at the illustrations and together the read the books over and over again.

I practically memorized, “One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish, black fish, blue fish, old fish, new fish. This one has a little car. This one has a little star. Say! What a lot of fish there are.”

“How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” and “Horton Hears a Who!” became television specials and “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” was a very popular graduation gift a few years ago.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! There is a bit more joy in this world since you were born. And I, for one, don’t think it is the end of the world that they caught you drinking beer with your buddies.

Copyright © 2013 by Ted Huffman. I wrote this. If you want to copy it, please ask for permission. There is a contact me button at the bottom of this page. If you want to share my blog a friend, please direct your friend to my web site.