anedas : anecdotes

I´m Dr Seuss fan N.1...I used to sleep
with any other book of his under the pillow!!!

I know a couple of anecdotes, I hope you enjoy them...

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Note added at 2004-01-29 17:40:42 (GMT)
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His art teacher said he couldn´t draw!
Publishers said he couldn´t write!
Yet his delightful books have made millions of kids fall in love with words..

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Note added at 2004-01-29 17:46:29 (GMT)
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Seuss¨s witty, parnk-loving prose delighted children. There were charcters such as Mr.Gump and his many-humped wump, lands like Whoville and Hippo-no-Hungus and foods like greeen eggs.

And his stories taught lessons. Seuss´s heroes, often as powerless as children, possessed moral integrity.

Dr Seuss lived in La Jolla, California.

Anecdotes I know:

He had the gift for invention. When he needed a plumber, he would call and say the dipilator was broken. The plumber, embarrassed to admit that he didn´t know what Dr Seuss was talking about, would show up promptly.l

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Note added at 2004-01-29 17:54:11 (GMT)
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Witty and outgoing with his friends. Dr Seuss ws insecure in crowds, a fear exacerbated by an incident when he was 13. During World War I Geissel´s Boy Scout troop sold a record number of war bonds and were to be presented with medals by former President Theodore Roosevelt.
Dr Seuss´s troop sat onstage as Roosevelt praised them and called out their names, one by one.

Finally, Dr Seuss ws left alone on the stage. Roosevelt searched his list and glared at him. \"What is this little boy doing here?\" he asked. Dr Seuss´s name had been inadvertently omitted.
Years later, explaining why he seldom gave speeches, Dr Seusss recalled the shame. \"I can still hear people saying, \"What is \'he\' doing here?\"

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Note added at 2004-01-29 18:04:04 (GMT)
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Seuss hardly seemed destined for greatness. His high-school art teacher told hom\"You will never learn to draw.\" His Dartmouth College fraternity voted him least likely to succeed. In graduate school at Oxford University in England, Seuss was often bored with lectures. During one class he drew a cow with wings, an acrobat´s body and a batty expression. Suddenly he heard a young female voice whisper, \"That´s a very fine flying cow\".
Her name was Helen Palmer, and she was studying for her M.A. in English literature and she became his wife in 1927 -after he sold a drawing of eggnog-drinking turtles to a magazine to finance their wedding.

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Note added at 2004-01-29 18:11:57 (GMT)
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Seuss inspired by the lament that children aren´t motivated to read, pressured his ediotrs for a list of 200 words simple enough for first-graders.
For six months, he spent eight fruitless hours a day at his drawing board. Then one day he noticed his sketch of a brassy-looking cat with a stovepipe hat and a tail coiled like a telephone cord. This cat was trouble-of the kind kids love.
It took him a year and a a half to take 228 words and carve a story. But by the end of 1957, its first year in print, \"The Cat in the Hat\" had sold 500,000 copies. Most important, the book gave Seuss the goal he needed:
to turn a whole new generation on to reading.

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Note added at 2004-01-29 18:19:29 (GMT)
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Dr. Seuss loved challenges.
In 1959, Random House co-founder Bennet Cerf bet him $50 that he couldn´t write a coherent book with an engaging story line using only 50 words. The result the folllowing year?
Green eggs and ...

Ageless Message:
Those whimsical stories elucidated the difference between right and wrong in the most important place of all - children´s hearts

I believe we are all never too old for his message.


Good Luck Prof. Alicia,
Patricia


references: Theodor S. Geisel and Audrey S. Geisel, Random House
and Unforgettable Dr. Seuss, by Peter W. Bernstein

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Note added at 2004-01-29 18:20:55 (GMT)
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typo: Seuss´s witty prank- loving prose delighted children ...