1. He often came up with story ideas by doodling.
2. His friend bet that he couldn’t write a book with just 50 different words, and so, Green Eggs and Ham was born.
3. He kept a closet full of wacky hats. Whenever he was stumped writing, he’d put on a suitable hat to help the words flow.
4. It took him over a year to write Cat in the Hat—and it only uses 236 different words!
5. His full name was Theodor Seuss Geisel, but his friends called him Ted.
6. He published 44 picture books.
7. Dr. Seuss was born March 2, 1904, in Springfield, MA.
8. His father was a master brewer and ran one of the largest brewing companies in New England. But when Prohibition took effect in 1920, the brewery closed down.
9. After the brewery closed, Dr. Seuss's father began running the local zoo. Seuss liked to visit his dad at work and when he got home he would try to draw the animals he saw on his walls.
10. Dr. Seuss was voted "Least Likely to Succeed" by his classmates at Dartmouth.
11. Seuss became dedicated to creating books for early readers after stumbling across an article about American children having trouble learning to read.
12. Green Eggs and Ham was written on a $50 bet. Random House co-founder Bennett Cerf challenged the author to write a book with only 50 words and Seuss delivered.
13. He was the first person to win the Pulitzer Prize for writing children's books.
14. In 1989, the logging industry wanted The Lorax removed from school reading lists. This was the first time one of Seuss's books faced censorship.
15. Oh, the Places You'll Go was the last book he published.
16. In 2010, Life Books named Seuss to their list of 100 People Who Changed the World.
17. Seuss has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
18. He won a Peabody Award for the animated specials How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and Horton Hears a Who!.
19. The Butter Battle Book, published in 1984, was the first children's book to spend six months on the New York Times' adult bestsellers list.
20. Dr. Seuss died September 24, 1991 from oral cancer.
Dr. Seuss Quotes
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."
"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."
"I meant what I said and I said what I meant."
"You're off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So... get on your way!"
"A person's a person, no matter how small."
"Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!"
"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."
"I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues."
Sources From Who Was Dr. Seuss? by Janet B. Pascal ©2011, published by Penguin. Imagine That! How Dr. Seuss Wrote The Cat in the Hat by Judy Sierra
