But the words still werent coming.
Most of that was untrue; he was barely at work onone.
Unfortunately the noble motivation wasnt making the writing any easier.
Random House Children’s Books
Stuck, he decided to make another quick pass through the list.
I was forbidden to use any words beyond [the list], Geisel said in exasperation.
I almost threw the job up.
Penguin
And like a genius, Geisel modestly explained later, I said, Thats the name.
He is NOT a smart ass, Geisel wrote.
He is NOT loud.
He NEVER shows off in a bragging manner.
He is glib, suave, well-educated.
More than anything, Geisels cat was a charming and enigmatic force of nature.
My version of Cotton Mather, Geisel lamented.
Actually, it took over a year.
Youtry telling a pretty complicated story using less than two hundred and fifty words!
He was the kind of editor I loved, Geisel said warmly.
He would never tell you anything that you did wrong.
Hed make you think, and youd come around to your own conclusion.
Hed spend an hour talking about three or four lines.
We had almost abstract discussions of the logical order of a story.
Look at me NOW!
It is fun to have fun
But you have to know how.
Kids dont know the words, Geisel explained later.
But we catch them with the rhythm.
The time Geisel put into drawing and redrawing each page clearly shows.
Teds animals are the sort youd like to take home to meet the family, said Helen.
Now, what SHOULD we do?
What would YOU do?
If your mother asked YOU?
The other thing thats new in the Cat is humor.
Run, Spot, run.
Proud as he was of it, he was also likely relieved to be done with it.
The Cat in the Hatwas not my favorite at all, Geisel said later.
It was a reading exercise.
And its painful to write when you cant use any adjectives and few nouns.
But Bennett Cerf was delighted with it.
All the walls would just be plastered with rough tissue sketchings, remembered Peggy Owens.
The message of the book was that we are merchandising Christmas too much.
But I found I could take it into very sloppy morality at the end, Geisel recalled.
I tried Old Testamenty things, New Testamenty things.
It was appalling how gooey I was getting.
How do you like this?
Helen scanned the pages, then scowled and shook her head.
Youve got the Papa Who too big, she told him.
Now he looks like a bug.
Flummoxed, Ted went on the defensive.
Well, theyarebugs, he insisted.
But Helen wouldnt hear of it.
They arenotbugs, she told him sternly.
The Whos are just small people.
Ted retreated to his studio to have another go.
I took a month on that last page, Ted said later.
Im really on the Grinchs side.
The Grinch is against the commercialization of Christmas, although hes sort of a mean old so-and-so .
I just couldnt resolve it because I was cheering for this guy.
As Ted was wrapping up work onHow the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Helen suffered a minor stroke.
The symptoms would clear relatively quickly and Helen would return home to the Tower to recover.
He was determined to get her there as quickly as possible.
Im sorta happy about the drawings.
Dr. Seuss had a blockbuster on his hands.
On its release in March 1957,The Cat in the Hatwas nothing short of a phenomenon.
Hooray for Dr. Seuss!
exclaimed theChicago Tribuneas the book blew out of department stores, where clerks could barely keep it in stock.
William Spaulding and Houghton Mifflin, however, enjoyed very little of its success.
The textbook found no acceptance whatsoever in the school system.
Just a few hundred were sold here and there.
When you take a stab at get rid ofDick and Jane, youre in the middle of a revolution.
Parents, however, were more than happy to join Dr. Seuss as fellow revolutionaries.
What exactly is it that makes this stuff [Seusss work] immortal?
Flesch asked admiringly.There is something about it.
Many critics, too, understood the importance of what Geisel had accomplished by writing an engaging primer.
[Dr. Seuss has] done it again, only differently this time, wrote theChicago Tribune.
Mr. Geisel put on his literary strait jacket [sic] with a purpose, wroteThe New York Timesapprovingly.
That was fine by Geisel.
I think I proved to a number of million kids that reading is not a disagreeable task.
Thats about enough, isnt it?
Copyright May, 7, 2019, by Brian Jay Jones.
