Friday, April 8, 2011

G is for Theodore Suess Geisel (aka Dr. Suess)

Lived: 1904-1991

Excellent BooksHop on Pop, The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, and over 40 others.  Many of his books have won awards. 

From His Life:  Theodore's dad was Superintendent of City Parks, which included a zoo.  Theodore spent years at the zoo drawing animals and developing his personal artistic style.  He worked as a cartoonist before writing and illustrating books.

Advice for Aspiring Writers:  Dr. Suess is an excellent example of working through rejections and believing in yourself.  His first book, And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street, was turned down by 29 publishers.  Dr. Suess had a wonderful sense of humor and attributed the final acceptance of his book to luck: he happened to be walking down the right side of the street when he bumped into a friend/editor who took Suess immediately to his office to sign a contract!  His most famous book, The Cat in the Hat, was published almost 20 years later.

Website http://www.seussville.com/

8 comments:

Misha Gerrick said...

Interesting! It goes to show that even the famous writers struggled at first.

This is a great idea for the challenge!
:-)

Kenda Turner said...

I love Dr. Seuss. My daughter loves Dr. Seuss. Now my almost 3-year old granddaughter loves Dr. Seuss! Thanks for featuring him--makes me want to pick up one of his books again. Especially "Oh, the Places You'll Go," one of my all-time favorites :-)

Sylvia Ney said...

I really like how you've added their advice to writers. Great blog! I'm stopping by from the A to Z challenge and I look forward to reading more from you.

Carla said...

Misha, It is interesting! What's even more fun is that sometimes when Dr. Suess would tell the story, he said he was turned down 25 times, while other times he was turned down, 20 or 29 times!

Kenda, We do too! I think "Oh, the Places You'll Go" is an excellent graduation present!

Thanks, Sylvia! I've had so much fun picking out advice for writers from them!

Carla

Laura S. said...

LOVE! My favorite Dr. Seuss books are "On Beyond Zebra!" and "The 500 Hats of Bartholemew Cubbins." All of his books are fantastic, though!

Carla said...

Laura, I haven't read "The 500 Hats," but I think it's interesting that Bartholomew Cubbins plays a main role in more than one of his books!

Carla

Jeff Beesler said...

I do not like Green Eggs and Ham, but I really appreciate what you're doing for the A-Z Challenge!

Carla said...

Thanks, Jeffrey! I'm really enjoying it, too!

Carla

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