Impacting Works: Dr. Suess
Every author has a unique style. Sometimes there is an author whose style is so interesting that people will try to copy it. Sometimes they succeed and sometimes they don't. There is one author with a style so simple and yet unique he has inspired many. Whether they try to write like him or he inspires them to use their own imaginations no one can deny his impact on their childhood. Even those who don't write he was probably among the first authors you heard. Who is he? When I first concieved the idea of explaining the impact various authors had on my writing my intent was to only focus on novelists. However that changed when I was reading a bedtime story to my nephew. The book was Dr. Suess's ABC's. While reading my nephew asks what is that referring to one of the many creatures Dr. Suess made up. I explained to him that it was a creature Dr. Suess invented. A few pages later there was another of the Suess creatures. I then took that moment to explain that authors often create things from their own imaginations to share with the world. My nephew accepted this and thought it was cool. After I finished reading the bed time stories my mind reeled: Why hadn't I considered Dr. Suess as having an impact? What have I been doing? Can I really ignore the first author who impacted me? How could I forget this impact? So I intend to remedy this oversight by discussing this prolific author.
As with Roald Dahl he's bound to have written something someone had heard of. The books I have read out of his many are: And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (read as part of an anthology), Horton Hatches the Egg, Bartholomew and the Oobleck (read as part of an anthology), If I Ran the Zoo, Horton Hears a Who, The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Green Eggs and Ham, The Sneetches and Other Stories, Dr. Suess's ABC's, Hop on Pop, Fox in Socks, Mr. Brown Can Moo. Can You? Dr. Suess's Book of Wonderful Noises, The Lorax, Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!, There's a Wocket in My Pocket, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut and Oh the Places You'll Go. There are many books here to be inspired by.
His style appears to be more poetic than anything else and it works. Every story has a rhythm and a hidden moral. He claimed he didn't put morals in his stories because he believed a child could “see a moral a mile off.” In just a few pages he created worlds and creatures no one had seen before. He also treated his readers with respect. There are many good children's books today but there seems to be an idea in our society that making something for kids means it can be stupid.
Theodore Suess Geisel was born March 2, 1904. It seems he started drawing and writing early. He worked for different magazines and advertising agencies. His pseudonym was initially chosen after he was ordered off his college literary magazine for drinking alcohol in his dorm during prohibition. He began publishing his works for the magazine as simply Suess (his middle name and his mother's maiden name). He also pronounced it Soyse which is the correct German pronunciation. Years later he conceded to the American pronunciation and added Dr. One of his college professors encouraged him to keep writing despite the ban. He wrote over sixty books during his lifetime. He originally planned to earn a phd in English to become a teacher but a young woman convinced him to persue art. This young woman would later become his first wife. Regrettably he began having an affair and his wife Helen who had struggled with various illnesses including cancer committed suicide. He later married his mistress Audrey. During his life he wrote over sixty books mostly for children even though he never had children. He died of Oral cancer in 1991 leaving behind manuscripts which had never been published. Over the next couple of years these lost manuscripts have been published.
Looking back there was something so simple about those books. Maybe that is why I dismissed them. Though as I read them to the next generation it occurs to me these are the first fantasy books I ever read. There is so much imagination shared in those pages which encourage you to use your own mind. He does inspire even long after his death his legacy lives on in his words, some of the first written words we hear as children. This introduction should never be taken for granted.