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On this day in 1991, the world lost a classic writer and artist – Dr. Seuss (AKA Theodor Geisel). I know the _floss has done stories on Dr. Seuss before, so I thought we’d go a little bit different route today – the stories behind his stories.
1. The Lorax. In case you haven’t read The Lorax, it’s widely recognized as Dr. Seuss’ take on environmentalism and how humans are destroying nature. The logging industry was so upset about the book that some groups within the industry sponsored The Truax, a similar book but from the logging point of view. Another interesting fact: the book used to contain the line, “I hear things are just as bad up in Lake Erie,” but 14 years after the book was published, the Ohio Sea Grant Program wrote to Seuss and told him how much the conditions had improved and implored him to take the line out. Dr. Seuss agreed and said that it wouldn’t be in future editions.
2. Horton Hears a Who! Somehow, Geisel’s books find themselves in the middle of controversy. The line from the book, “A person’s a person, no matter how small,” has been used as a slogan for pro-life organizations for years. It’s often questioned whether that was Seuss’ intent in the first place, but I would say not: when he was still alive, he threatened to sue a pro-life group unless they removed his words from their letterhead. Karl ZoBell, the attorney for Dr. Seuss’ interests and for his widow, Audrey Geisel, says that she doesn’t like people to “hijack Dr. Seuss characters or material to front their own points of view.”
3. If I Ran the Zoo, published in 1950, is the first recorded instance of the word “nerd”.
4. The Cat in the Hat was written basically because Dr. Seuss thought the famous Dick and Jane primers were insanely boring. Because kids weren’t interested in the material, they weren’t exactly compelled to use it repeatedly in their efforts to learn to read. So, The Cat in the Hat was born, and I must agree: it’s definitely more interesting.
5. Green Eggs and Ham. Bennett Cerf, Dr. Seuss’ editor, bet him thaat he couldn’t write a book using 50 words or less. The Cat in the Hat was pretty simple, after all, and it used 225 words. Not one to back down from a challenge, Mr. Geisel started writing and came up with Green Eggs and Ham – which uses exactly 50 words. The 50 words, by the way, are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.
6. Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! It’s often alleged that this book was written specifically about Richard Nixon, but the book came out only two months after the whole Watergate scandal. It’s pretty unlikely that the book could have been conceived of, written, edited and mass produced in such a short time; also, Seuss never admitted that the story was originally about Nixon. That’s not to say he didn’t understand how well the two flowed together. In 1974, he sent a copy of Marvin K. Mooney to his friend Art Buchwald at the Washington Post. In it, he crossed out “Marvin K. Mooney” and replaced it with “Richard M. Nixon”, which Buchwald reprinted in its entirety. Oh, and one other tidbit: this book contains the first-ever reference to “crunk”, although its meaning is a bit different than today’s crunk.
7. Yertle the Turtle = Hitler? Yep. If you haven’t read the story, here’s a little overview: Yertle is the king of the pond, but he wants more. He demands that other turtles stack themselves up so he can sit on top of them to survey the land. Mack, the turtle at the bottom, is exhausted. He asks Yertle for a rest; Yertle ignores him and demands more turtles for a better view. Eventually, Yertle notices the moon and is furious that anything dare be higher than himself, and is about ready to call for more turtles when Mack burps. This sudden movement topples the whole stack, sends Yertle flying into the mud, and frees the rest of the turtles from their stacking duty. Dr. Seuss actually said Yertle was a representation of Hitler. Despite the political nature of the book, none of that was disputed at Random House – what was disputed was Mack’s burp. No one had ever let a burp loose in a children’s book before, so it was a little dicey. In the end, obviously, Mack burped.
8. The Butter Battle Book is one I had never heard of, perhaps with good reason: it was pulled from the shelves of libraries for a while because of the reference to the Cold War and the arms race. Yooks and Zooks are societies who do everything differently. The Yooks eat their bread with the butter-side up and the Zooks eat their bread with the butter-side down. Obviously, one of them must be wrong, so they start building weapons to outdo each other: the “Tough-Tufted Prickly Snick-Berry Switch”, the “Triple-Sling Jigger”, the “Jigger-Rock Snatchem”, the “Kick-A-Poo Kid”, the “Eight-Nozzled Elephant-Toted Boom Blitz”, the “Utterly Sputter” and the “Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo”. The book concludes with each side ready to drop their ultimate bombs on each other, but the reader doesn’t know how it actually turns out.
9. Oh The Places You’ll Go is Dr. Seuss’ final book, published in 1990. It sells about 300,000 copies every year because so many people give it to college and high school grads.
10. No Dr. Seuss post would be complete without a mention of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! I couldn’t find much on the book, however, so here are a few facts about the Dr. Seuss-sanctioned cartoon. Frankenstein’s Monster himself, Boris Karloff, provided the voice of the Grinch and the narration for the movie. Seuss a little wary of casting him because he thought his voice would be too scary for kids. Can you imagine the cartoon with any other voice?! If you’re wondering why they sound a bit different, it’s because the sound people went back to the Grinch’s parts and removed all of the high tones in Karloff’s voice. That’s why the Grinch sounds so gravelly.
Tony the Tiger, AKA Thurl Ravenscroft (who is also a singer in my absolute favorite Disney attraction, the Haunted Mansion), is the voice behind “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” He received no credit on screen for it, so Dr. Seuss wrote to pretty much every columnist in every major newspaper in the U.S. telling them exactly who the famous song was sung by.
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Comments (33)
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Great column.
And you’re right about Thurl Ravenscroft (check out his head on one of the busts in the Haunted Mansion). You can also hear his singing voice on other Disney attractions.
posted by beth on 9-24-2008 at 2:26 pm
I wonder — was the reference to “Lake Erie” ever removed from The Lorax? The battered copy I have (which has survived hundreds of before-bed readings to my six-year-old through the past several years) still mentions it, but it dates from the early 1980s.
posted by Brian Pearce on 9-24-2008 at 3:09 pm
What about the Sneetches? It was my favorite as a child. It’s about how differences do not make you better or worse but how easily you can be exploited when you believe that something like “a star on your belly” makes you better.
posted by carol on 9-24-2008 at 3:30 pm
I love Dr. Seuss. I always loved the Lorax and the Butter Battle Book was always one of my favs. This post makes me want to go rummaging through my parents garage and find all my old Seuss books. I’m pretty sure i had just about all of them growing up.
posted by Andy on 9-24-2008 at 3:41 pm
Just last night I was reading Green Eggs and Ham to my 3 year old and trying in vain to count the number of words. Thanks for printing them.
My copy of the Lorax also mentions Lake Erie and it must have been bought sometime after my 11 year old was born in 1997. I’ll have to look next time I’m in a bookstore.
posted by Bill on 9-24-2008 at 3:44 pm
Great article, I really love Dr. Suess. The Sneetches was my favorite book growing up and I think the messages really shaped the positive view I have on race.
posted by Nathan on 9-24-2008 at 4:51 pm
Great column. I can’t believe you left out “And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street”. I think it may have been his first book. A great work!
posted by Liz on 9-24-2008 at 7:53 pm
The Butter-Battle Book was one of my favourites and I had forgotten all about it until now! For some reason, I have a memory of reading it in the doctor’s office.
Wonderful post! :D
reCaptcha-denied author
What a reCaptcha.
posted by Myleti on 9-24-2008 at 8:34 pm
My copy of The Lorax is missing the Lake Erie line.
posted by Amber on 9-24-2008 at 8:52 pm
I, too came here for a mention of “Mulberry Street”! That was my favorite as a young girl – I remember how I loved to read it aloud in a sing-song voice.
ReCaptcha: Eggleston Museum. Sounds like a place right out of Seuss!
posted by Rose on 9-24-2008 at 11:08 pm
I just wanted to echo the view on the Sneetches, though I guess as it was a short story within a book and not a book in itself it doesn’t fit in the category?
The Sneetches was explictly about anti-semitism, I’m pretty sure Seuss said so. Though some people have understandably come to view it as being about skin-color barriers.
posted by Julia on 9-24-2008 at 11:30 pm
My favorite was always Fox in Socks. If you haven’t read it, do it, even if you’re older than most Seuss readers. It’s a giant tongue twister. My dad and I used to race through it seeing how few mistakes we could make.
Sidenote: My Middle Level Education professor actually challenged me to read it out loud on the fly last week in class.
One mistake. Thanks, Dad.
posted by Kieran on 9-24-2008 at 11:43 pm
The first book my daughter read all the way through was Hop on Pop. She was 4 years old. I love Dr. Suess.
posted by Brandi on 9-25-2008 at 2:14 am
Theodore Geisel was a genius. Seriously. Think about all you just read, the rhyme schemes, and how incredibly creative the man was.
posted by Will on 9-25-2008 at 7:20 am
Another vote for Fox on Sox. I don’t remember it as a child but once I had children myself, I loved reading it to them.
Had the ABC book memorized, as that was the requested favorite.
posted by KJ on 9-25-2008 at 8:16 am
My parents bought me a big, hardcovered Dr.Seuss book with a collection of his stories when I was in elementary school. I brought it to my babysitter’s and was sitting outside reading it when one of my friends came over and picked it up to look at it, getting their muddy hands all over the inside cover. I nearly died.
recaptcha: proe culture
posted by Brittany on 9-25-2008 at 8:46 am
I’ve always been curious about The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. As I read it to to my kids, I couldn’t help but see references to McCarthyism and the “Red Scare” of the 50s. Does anyone know the story behind that one?
posted by Jason on 9-25-2008 at 8:55 am
My favorite was always There’s a Wocket in My Pocket. I think I was never scared of monsters because of it – they’re all kind of cute in the book!
posted by Bekah on 9-25-2008 at 9:00 am
I used to love Dr Seuss when I was a kid, but I almost forgot about his books altogether until I became a dad.
The beauty of his rhymes comes out in the way my 2-year-old son can recite The Cat in the Hat by heart. Pure genius.
I’m now on a mission to get my kids as many of his books as possible.
posted by Jonno on 9-25-2008 at 10:03 am
I consider Fox in Socks to be one of the greatest works of American literature. Seriously. Feast on this:
“When a fox is in the bottle where the tweetle beetles battle
with their paddles in a puddle on a noodle-eating poodle,
THIS is what they call…
…a tweetle beetle noodle poodle bottled paddled
muddled duddled fuddled wuddled fox in socks, sir!”
A genius for language equivalent to Shakespeare, in my opinion.
posted by ianrey on 9-25-2008 at 10:12 am
I am a jaded, 26 year old man… and I still get all teary-eyed when I watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas before the big day. The part when all the Whos sing hand in hand on Christmas morning… *sniff*
posted by Zach on 9-25-2008 at 11:11 am
I second Zach’s sentiments – every Christmas Eve we watch the animated Grinch. I cannot think of a better Christmas special to promote the joys of peace and family. Nothing else comes close.
posted by Marion on 9-25-2008 at 11:46 am
Wow, you learn quite a bit from Mental Floss. I knew a few of these, but I never knew the Truax was really a book, until I googled it. Wow. To think people would take that seriously is beyond me.
I agree, ianrey, Fox In Socks, especially those lines are some of the most literally creative tongue-twistering lines ever written.
posted by Michael : I Love Dr Seuss on 9-25-2008 at 1:19 pm
My first Dr. S book was “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.” It’s still my personal favorite, but mainly for sentimental reasons. Regardless, I regularly read a number of Theo’s tomes to my daughter. Despite my best efforts, she favors “Green Eggs and Ham.” Ah well, to each their own…as I’m sure the good Dr. would agree.
posted by VersoFolio on 9-25-2008 at 2:41 pm
I’m not sure, but I’ve always found a correlation between the Grinch and Grendel from the old english story “Beowulf”. Yes, it was remade as a sucky movie.
Either way, Grendel hated the joyous parties that the Geats had and decided to go on a killing rampage. Finally Beowulf kills him. So not so much in common, but at least the whole jealousy thing.
posted by Zman on 9-25-2008 at 9:28 pm
I use “Red Fish, Blue Fish” as a primer on faceted classification when I’m introducing clients to better search presentation methods.
And “The Places You’ll Go” was my wedding reading.
Do I get a Seuss badge?
posted by Louise Hewitt on 9-27-2008 at 8:23 am
reading this make me want to get out my Dr. Suess stories and just read them for hours. I’m actually pretty privlaged to live in the same neighborhood as Dr Suess and to add to Dr suess trivia, he wrote a story to stop the city council for allowing billboards here in my neighborhood. He was just a remarkable man
posted by Marielle on 10-22-2008 at 7:53 pm
The first book I ever read was Green Eggs and Ham. My dad and I used to read together every night and he would do different voices for all the characters. I attribute my love of the written word to Suess’s great books (and my dad’s patience with me when I wanted to hear “just one more”)
posted by Eirn on 10-23-2008 at 9:11 pm
The Butter Battle book was my favorite Seuss story after the Lorax. (I think at one point my mom had them both memorized due to the repeated readings)
I think I was a very sad child.
posted by Moto on 10-27-2008 at 11:11 pm
On Beyond Zebra was Suess’ alternative alphabet book and then there was The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins and the live movie The 5000 fingers of Dr. T
As much as the recent movie cat in the hat and the grinch are wrong 5000 fingers is astounding in it’s suess qualities.
The Trailer for the movie is online, I always wanted to read all his books but I never did get a full list and some of them are rather hard to find. I would totally buy a complete works especially if it included the ww II cartoons.
posted by Kehlar on 10-29-2008 at 10:21 am
Back in the early 90s his original sketches were on display in my home town at the Butler Museum of American Art. It was pretty cool.
posted by Bill T on 11-2-2008 at 8:56 pm
The Butter Battle Book is my favorite Seuss. It’s really silly for being a book about war.
posted by Tina Kubala on 11-3-2008 at 2:57 am
In high school my favorite history teacher read us The Butter Battle Book when we were learning about the Cold War.
posted by Emily on 2-9-2009 at 2:10 pm