Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Better known to the world as the beloved Dr. Seuss, Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Ted’s father, Theodor Robert, and grandfather were brewmasters in the city. His mother, Henrietta Seuss Geisel, often soothed her children to sleep by “chanting” rhymes remembered from her youth. Ted credited his mother with both his ability and desire to create the rhymes for which he became so well known.

Ted left Springfield as a teenager to attend Dartmouth College, where he became editor-in-chief of the Jack-O-Lantern, Dartmouth’s humor magazine. Although his tenure as editor ended prematurely when Ted and his friends were caught throwing a drinking party, which was against the prohibition laws and school policy, he continued to contribute to the magazine, signing his work “Seuss.” This is the first record of the “Seuss” pseudonym, which was both Ted’s middle name and his mother’s maiden name.

To please his father, who wanted him to be a college professor, Ted went on to Oxford University in England after graduation. However, his academic studies bored him, and he decided to tour Europe instead. Oxford did provide him the opportunity to meet a classmate, Helen Palmer, who not only became his first wife, but also a children’s author and book editor.

After returning to the United States, Ted began to pursue a career as a cartoonist. The Saturday Evening Post and other publications published some of his early pieces, but the bulk of Ted’s activity during his early career was devoted to creating advertising campaigns for Standard Oil, which he did for more than 15 years.

After Ted’s first wife died in 1967, Ted married an old friend, Audrey Stone Geisel, who not only influenced his later books, but now guards his legacy as the president of Dr. Seuss Enterprises.

At the time of his death on September 24, 1991, Ted had written and illustrated 44 children’s books, including such all-time favorites as Green Eggs and Ham, Oh, the Places You’ll Go, Fox in Socks, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. His books had been translated into more than 15 languages. Over 200 million copies had found their way into homes and hearts around the world.

Besides the books, his works have provided the source for eleven children’s television specials, a Broadway musical and a feature-length motion picture. Other major motion pictures are on the way. His honors included two Academy awards, two Emmy awards, a Peabody award and the Pulitzer Prize.

“Be who you are and say how you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”

“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!”

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

“Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.”

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own.
And you know what you know. You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”

“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if only you try!”

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons.
It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags.
And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before.
What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store.
What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

“You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.”

“As you partake of the world’s bill of fare, that’s darned good advice to follow – Do a lot of spitting out the hot air – And be careful what you swallow.”

“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.”

“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”

“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”

“You have to be odd to be number one”

“To the world you may be one person; but to one person you may be the world.”

“Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.”

“I know it may seem small and insignificant, but it’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become. That’s not a seed, any more than you’re just a boy.”

“Sometimes you will never know the value of something, until it becomes a memory.”

“Only you can control your future.”

“You have brains In your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose”

“It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become.”

“It is better to know how to learn than to know.”

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”