This slideshow explores the life of Dr. Seuss and what world events affected his writing.

1. Dr. Seuss
What would we do without him?
What’s YOUR favorite Dr. Seuss book?
Children’s author or political
commentator?

2. One of the
most famous
authors of all
times is
Dr. Seuss!

3. Dr. Seuss was born March 2, 1904 in
Springfield, Massachusetts. He died
in 1991 when he was 87 years old.
A LOT of world events happened
during those 87 years.

4. Dr. Seuss Timeline

5. Dr. Seuss Timeline (cont’d.)

6. When Theodor Geisel was 8 years old, the Titanic sank after striking an
iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean.

7. The Titanic poster
tells us that a ticket
to Hamburg was
$45.00 and a ticket
to Plymouth was
$36.25. How much
less was the ticket
to Plymouth than
the ticket to
Hamburg?

8. June 28, 1914
What happened?

9. May2,1918
Former President Theodore
Roosevelt publicly
embarrassed Ted during a
Boy Scout awards ceremony
for War Bonds. The former
President was not given
enough awards to pass out
and asked “What’s he doing
here?” when he got to Ted
Geisel. Dr. Seuss said he
was afraid of public speaking
because of that experience.
What book used the line “A
person’s a person, no matter how
small?

10. Right!
That line is from the
book: Horton Hears a
Who. Some people
think it refers to the way
Ted Geisel felt after
being embarrassed by
former President
Theodore Roosevelt.

11. In 1917, Ted entered Springfield’s Central High School,
just a block or two from Mulberry St., and began writing
for the school paper, The Central Recorder.
In 1919, Theodor Geisel’s
grandfather passed away and so
his father became President of the
family brewery.He left the German
cavalry and moved to America in
1867. The Kalmback and Geisel
Brewery was founded in 1876.
Why was that NOT a
good time to own a
brewery?

12. When Ted went to
College at
Dartmouth, he drew
cartoons for the
school newspaper.
He was the class
clown, a practical
joker, and was voted
the least likely to
succeed in his class.

13. He started using the name Seuss, his mother’s maiden
name, for his writing and drawing after he was punished
for drinking on the college campus and banned from
participating in extracurricular activities.
When was he in college?
He attended Oxford after graduating from Dartmouth but
did not graduate. Instead he went back to the US in 1927
intending to be an English teacher but ended up writing
and making cartoons that he submitted to magazines. He
had work published in:
• Life
• The Saturday Evening Post
• Judge (a humor magazine)
• Vanity Fair

14. 1928--First appearance of Mickey and Minnie Mouse
in an animated short film Plane Crazy How old was Dr.
Seuss when Mickey and Minnie appeared?

15. After college and travel, Ted Geisel went into
the advertising business in New York City.
Life was tough but he got a job in 1927 to
make ads for Flit, a division of Standard Oil
that made bug spray.

16. This is Dr. Seuss’s
first book.
It was very hard to get
it published: twenty-
seven different book
companies didn’t like
it! Finally, a friend
who was a book
publisher decided to
give it a try in 1937.
Now it is famous.

17. His next books were:
1938 1939

18. 1939: A tongue-in-cheek
reworking of the legends
of Lady Godiva and
Peeping Tom, in which
the seven Godiva sisters
vow not to wed until
each has discovered a
new Horse Truth of
Benefit to all Mankind.

19. Dr. Seuss said that one day, he
was sitting in his office with the
windows open. A breeze lifted a
piece of paper with an elephant
sketched on it and laid it down on
another drawing of a tree. “All I
had to do was figure out what that
elephant was doing in that tree.”
That story became …

20. 1940

21. In 1941, Dr. Seuss took a break from writing books. He
cared about politics and during World War II drew
many cartoons for a magazine. He also joined the
United States Army and helped to make movies for
the soldiers.

22. Some of his cartoons would be
considered politically incorrect today..
Why did only a few people object to
his cartoons when he published them?

23. In 1941, Dr. Seuss took a break from writing books. He
cared about politics and during World War II drew
propaganda cartoons for a magazine. Along with
Frank Capra, Mel Blanc, and Chuck Jones, the creator
of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, Ted Geisel
joined the United States Army and helped make
training cartoons (about Private Snafu) for soldiers
and sailors. Some of them are not appropriate for
children. Titles include:
• Booby Traps
• The Chow Hound
• Censorship
• Spies
• And others…

25. Dr. Seuss kept writing. He wrote
McElligot’s Pool, Thidwick the Big
Hearted Moose, and Bartholomew
and the Oobleck.
1947 1948 1949

26. 1950 1953 1954 1955
1956 1957 1957 1958

27. Dr. Seuss is different from many
writers because most of his books
are written in rhyme. To make his
rhymes, he would often make up
new words, like the Sneetches,
the Lorax, and Zizzer-zazzer-zuzz.
Did you know he made up the
word NERD?

28. See if you can identify some of the political
statements in books by Dr. Seuss. Not all of
his books were political, but many had
meanings not evident to children.

29. In 1950 a man named John Hersey
studied how kids learn to read. He
wrote a report about what he had
learned. It said children were
having a hard time learning to read
because their books were boring!

30. One of Dr. Seuss’s friends read Mr.
Hersey’s report. He called Mr. Geisel
and told him he should write a funny
book with only a few easy words in it,
for kids who were learning to read. It
took Dr. Seuss 9 months and he used
only 220 easy words. Everybody loved
it! That book was…

32. What was going on in the world that
caused Americans to focus on
improving education?

33. Chuck Jones and Dr. Seuss produced the animated
version of The Cat in the Hat with Dr. Seuss. Quite
a few of his books were made into animated
cartoons. Some were even made into ‘real’
movies. How did Dr. Seuss know a Hollywood
producer?

34. Dr. Seuss argued for fairness and equity
in 1958. Even though WWII had been
over for some time, People thought the
book referred to which wartime leader?
I know up on top you are seeing
great sights,
But down at the bottom we, too,
have rights.
And the turtles, of course Yertle the Turtle
All the turtles are free
As turtles, and maybe, all creatures should be.

35. Which picture is the correct answer?

36. Ted also wrote under another pen-
name or pseudonym…Theo LeSieg.
LeSieg is Ted’s real last name…
spelled backwards!!!
LeSieg = Geisel

37. Dr. Seuss also created his own book
company to produce a series of books
called BEGINNER BOOKS that used
pictures and words to get kids to read!
Anytime you see this icon…you know this is
a book by Dr. Seuss’s book company!

38. 1958 1959 1960 1960
1961 1962 1963 1963

39. In 1957, a friend gave him
another challenge. Could Dr.
Seuss write a book with only
50 different words in it? And
he did - Dr. Seuss wrote
another very popular book,
published in 1960. Dr. Seuss
said, “It was the only book I
wrote that still makes me
laugh.”

40. Dr. Seuss wrote The Sneetches
in 1961 to address how different
groups of people didn’t like
each other. What events made
him believe it was important for
people to get along better?
I’m quite happy to say that the Sneetches got
really smart on that day.
The day they decided that Sneetches are
Sneetches.
And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the
beaches.

41. 1965 1965 1967 1968
1969 1969 1970 1970

42. 1971: The Lorax
What was going on in the world when
this book was published?
Did you know this book was BANNED
from a school in California in 1989
because parents believed it would
portray the loggers as villains? Why
would people there be opposed to
others thinking badly of the logging
industry?

43. 1972 1973 1973 1974
1974 1975 1978 1979

44. The book Marvin K. Mooney, Will you Please Go Now! Is
NOT just a children’s book. It was a political statement.
What was happening in the U.S. then that Dr. Seuss was
expressing his opinion about in this book?

45. 1982 1984 1986 1987
1990 1994 1973/1996 1998

46. Things were a little quieter in the 80’s but
Dr. Seuss wrote The Butter Battle Book
about what world situation?

47. Was that situation…known as?
• The Space Race
• The Cold War
• The Vegan Movement

48. 1984 TV Theme Songs and Commercials Playlist

49. Dr. Seuss wrote books with messages
about getting along, and pollution.

50. Published in 1990, Dr. Seuss’s books
encourage people to make their own
choices.
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
Any direction you choose.
You’re on your own.
And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy
Who’ll decide where to go.

51. This book
was made from a
movie Dr. Seuss
wrote. He loved
Hollywood and film-
making.
Many of his books
were turned into
made- for -TV
specials.
.

52. All together Dr. Seuss wrote 44 different
books. They have been published in 20
different languages, like English,
French, German, Italian, Swedish,
Swahili, Chinese, Japanese and
Russian. More than 100 million copies
have been sold all over the world.

53. These are
some of the
forms of
technology that
were
developed in
Ted Geisel’s
lifetime.
HP-35 Scientific Calculator, introduced in 1972, cost $395.00
The Game Boy, by Nintendo, was
released in April 1989 and the
cost then was $89.99. In today’s
dollars, that would be $169.73.
Commercially produced floppy disks were available in
1971. They held 1.2 MB of data. 1000 MB=1GB.
Today’s thumb drives typically hold at least 6GB.

54. Dr. Seuss was still
writing books when he
died on Sept. 24,1991
at the age of 87. His
wife and his friends
finished the book he
was working on then,
Daisy-Head Mayzie.

55. In 2015, the book “What Pet Should I Get?”

56. In September, 2019 yet another
Dr. Seuss book will be published,
even though Ted Geisel died in
1991. The manuscript for this
book was recently found in his
home. The book’s title is Dr.
Seuss’s Horse Museum and will
feature some of his previous
characters as well as
reproductions of famous works of
art featuring horses.

57. In 1997, schools all over the United
States chose March 2, Dr. Seuss’s
birthday, as a day to celebrate
reading. We want people to know
that reading is important and lots of
fun!

58. The more that you read,
The more things you will know,
The more that you learn,
The more places you’ll go.
Dr. Seuss

59. One interesting place to go is the Dr.
Seuss Sculpture Garden in Springfield, MA

60. Cohen, C. D. (2004). The Seuss, the whole Seuss, and nothing but the
Seuss: A visual biography of Theodor Seuss Geisel. New York: Random
House.
Cook, S. (1994). On the loose with Dr. Seuss, Chicago: Incentive
Publications.
CNN. (2019). “A never-before released Dr. Seuss book is coming out
this fall.” Retrieved 3/8/19 from https://www.wpbf.com/article/a-never-
before-released-dr-seuss-book-is-coming-out-this-fall/26589028
Dartmouth College Library. (1970, January 01). Who's Who & What's
What in the Books of Dr. Seuss. Retrieved March 21, 2018, from
https://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/digital/collections/books/ocm4540819
1/ocm45408191.html
Geisel, T. S., & Minear, R. H. (2001). Dr. Seuss goes to war: The World
War II editorial cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel. New York: New
Press.
References

61. Green, R. (2014). Uncle Sam-I-Am: Dr. Seuss’s Private Snafu. National
Archives: The Unwritten Record. Retrieved 2/11/19 from: https://unwritten-
record.blogs.archives.gov/2014/03/04/uncle-sam-i-am/
Film Inspector. (2016). WWII Dr. Seuss Style. Retrieved 2/15/19 from
http://worldwartwo.filminspector.com/2016/01/wwii-dr-seuss-style.html
National Museum of American History. (2019). Electronic calculators-
Handheld. Retrieved 2/26/19 from
http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/handheld-electronic-
calculators
New England Historical Society. (2015). Teddy Roosevelt Humiliates Dr.
Seuss. Retrieved 2/22/19 from
http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/teddy-roosevelt-
humiliates-dr-seuss/

62. San Diego Museum of Art. (1987). Dr. Seuss from then to now: A
catalogue of the retrospective exhibition organized by the San Diego
Museum of Art, San Diego, California. New York: Random House.
Wheeler, J. C. (1992). Dr. Seuss. Minneapolis, MN: Abdo &
Daughters.
Springfield Museums. (2019). Dr. Seuss Sculpture Garden. Retrieved
2/26/19 from https://springfieldmuseums.org/about/dr-seuss-
sculpture-garden/
Springfield Museums. (2019). Seuss in Springfield timeline. Retrieved
2/26/19 from https://www.seussinspringfield.org/timeline
Book images from Amazon.com

63. • Modified by Dr. Cheryl Youse, with
permission, from works by Karen E.
DeFrank, Library Media Specialist,
Glassboro, NJ, 2005 and Dr. Alisande
Mayer, Library Media Specialist,
Valdosta, GA, 2019.