Dr. Seuss (or, by his government name, Theodor Seuss Geisel) was born on this day in 1904, in Springfield, Mass. His comedy writing career started when he wrote for the student humor magazine at Dartmouth College, but things changed when he got caught drinking alcohol in his dorm room. The problem: It was during Prohibition, so what would otherwise be a minor infraction became big trouble. Forced to resign from the magazine, he adopted his famous pen name to continue contributing to the publication.
After attending and subsequently dropping out of Oxford University in England, Geisel started shopping his cartoons around and was eventually hired to create cartoon advertisements. In 1931 he got his first children's book published, producing several more before World War II started (including your author's favorite, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins). He shifted to creating pro-war political cartoons and later posters for the government. In 1943 he enlisted in the Army and ran the U.S. Army Air Forces' Animation Department. He was awarded a Legion of Merit for his work.
After that, he returned to writing children's books, penning his most famous works, including Horton Hears a Who!, The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Green Eggs and Ham. He was granted several honors in the final decades of his life, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1984 that recognized the entirety of his contributions to children's literature. He died in 1991.
