Biography Of Theodor Seuss Geisel

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Theodor Robert and Henrietta Geisel. Mulberry Street in Springfield, made famous in Dr. Seuss' first children's book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street!, is less than a mile southwest of his boyhood home on Fairfield Street. Geisel was raised a Lutheran. (Morgan & Morgan, 1996, p. 36) Geisel enrolled at Springfield Central High School in 1917 and graduated in 1921. Geisel attended Dartmouth College, graduating in 1925. At Dartmouth, he joined the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and the humor magazine Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, eventually rising to the rank of editor-in-chief. While at Dartmouth, Geisel was caught drinking gin with nine friends in his room. (Wikimedia Foundation, 22 March 2014) As a result, Dean Craven Laycock insisted that he resign from all extracurricular activities, including the college humor magazine. To continue work on the Jack-O-Lantern without the administration's knowledge, Geisel began signing his work with the pen name "Seuss". Geisel was encouraged in his writing by professor of rhetoric W. Benfield Pressey, whom he described as his "big inspiration for writing" at Dartmouth. Upon graduating from Dartmouth, he entered Lincoln College, Oxford, intending to earn a PhD in English literature. At Oxford, he met Helen Palmer, who encouraged him to give up becoming an English teacher in favor of pursuing drawing as a career.

Geisel left Oxford without earning a degree and returned to the United States in February 1927, where he immediately began submitting his work to magazines, book publishers, and advertising agencies. Making use of his time in Europe, he pitched a series of cartoons called Eminent Europeans to Life m...

... middle of paper ...

...h awarded Geisel with an honorary doctorate. He added the “Dr.” to his penname because his father had always wanted him to practice medicine.

On October 23, 1967, suffering from a long struggle with illnesses including cancer—as well as emotional pain over her husband's affair with Audrey Stone Dimond—Geisel's wife, Helen Palmer Geisel, committed suicide. Geisel married Dimond on June 21, 1968. (”Dr. Seuss Biography” Biography A+E Networks, 2014. Web. 22 March 2014)

Geisel died of oral cancer on September 24, 1991, at his home in La Jolla at the age of 87. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered. On December 1, 1995, four years after his death, University of California, San Diego's University Library Building was renamed Geisel Library in honor of Geisel and Audrey for the generous contributions they made to the library and their devotion to improving literacy.