Dr. Seuss Goes to War:
The World War II Editorial Carttons of Theodor Seuss Geisel

Dr. Seuss Goes to War:
The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel

As World War II began, Geisel turned to political cartoons, drawing over 400 in two years as editorial cartoonist for the left-wing New York City daily newspaper, PM. Geisel's political cartoons, later published in Dr. Seuss Goes to War, opposed the viciousness of Hitler and Mussolini and were highly critical of isolationists, most notably Charles Lindbergh, who opposed American entry into the war. One cartoon[6] depicted all Japanese Americans as latent traitors or fifth-columnists, while at the same time other cartoons deplored the racism at home against Jews and blacks that harmed the war effort. His cartoons were strongly supportive of President Roosevelt's conduct of the war, combining the usual exhortations to ration and contribute to the war effort with frequent attacks on Congress (especially the Republican Party), parts of the press (such as the New York Daily News and Chicago Tribune), and others for criticism of Roosevelt, criticism of aid to the Soviet Union, investigation of suspected Communists, and other offenses that he depicted as leading to disunity and helping the Nazis, intentionally or inadvertently. In 1942, Geisel turned his energies to direct support of the U.S. war effort. First, he worked drawing posters for the Treasury Department and the War Production Board. Then, in 1943, he joined the Army and was commander of the Animation Dept of the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Forces, where he wrote films that included Your Job in Germany, a 1945 propaganda film about peace in Europe after World War II, Design for Death, a study of Japanese culture that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1947, and the Private Snafu series of adult army training films. While in the Army, he was awarded the Legion of Merit. Geisel's non-military films from around this time were also well-received; Gerald McBoing-Boing won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Animated) in 1950.

If you have lost your copy of Horton Hears a Who, replace it. Oops! Did you sell your child's copy at a garage sale when they grew up and moved out. Buy your next one for yourself or to gift to your grandchildren.

Horton Hears A Who!

Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who
(Deluxe Edition)

Manhattan Toy Dr. Seuss Horton
Large

Dr. Seuss:
Horton Hears A Who! Original 27x40 Double Sided Movie Poster
Not A Reprint

Dr. Seuss Horton Hears a Who!
You to the Rescue Game

Until I started my lens to tell the world about Me and Dr. Seuss, I had no idea just how far my love would go. I was up on most of the "children's" Seuss books because I read them to my own kids. I also suspected that many of those books were revered more by the adults reading them than by the children listening to them. How did I know that? Because they all went on to read them to their own children.

I also suspect that there are a great number of adults who still have one or more of their favorite Dr. Seuss books in their own library. And I am sure that many include in their collection, "Oh, The Places You Will Go".

But, imagine my surprise and delight to discover that Theodor Seuss Geisel had written a book for real for adults titled The Seven Lady Godivas.

Seven Lady Godivas:
The True Facts Concerning History's Barest Family

Originally published in 1939, Dr. Seuss's first book for adults is now a collector's item. It sells for as much as $500 in the rare book market. Fortunately for us it was reissued "by multitudinous demand"
in 1987. I found my copy on one of my used book store crawls.

"This book sets the record straight about what really happened in eleventh-century Coventry: there was not one Lady Godiva but seven sisters, all equally bare, and not one Peeping Tom, but seven.

With unabashed good humor, Seuss romps through history and engages in a little horseplay along the way as he uncovers the origins of seven celebrated proverbs. Wonderfully wacky and satisfyingly scandalous, this is the perfect fillip for all those who thought they had outgrown Dr. Seuss".

Quoted words from the book's inside dust jacket.

#1. One of Dr. Seuss' greatest achievements was his success at teaching children to read, to love language and to use their imaginations. He always said The Cat in the Hat was "the book I'm proudest of, because it had something to do with the death of the Dick and Jane primers."

Not a bad epitaph: He slew Dick and Jane.

#2. It didn't take Dr. Seuss long to get his point across.

The Cat in the Hat was written after he was challenged by an editor to write a book using 250 of the 400 words beginning readers should know. Geisel came close: 220.

Three years later, Random House publisher Bennett Cerf bet Geisel $50 that he couldn't write a book using only 50 words.

He could. It was called Green Eggs and Ham.

#3. Some of the most beloved Dr. Seuss books contained messages, expressed in cheeky satire but pointed in a way that children could absorb.

Even before Brown vs. Board of Education, Seuss was teaching tolerance, in Horton Hears a Who! ("A person's a person, no matter how small") and The Sneetches, inspired by his opposition to anti-Semitism ("And, really, it's sort of a shame / For except for those stars, every Sneetch is the same"). He made fun of Hitler and dictators everywhere in Bartholomew and the Oobleck and Yertle the Turtle. He worried about the arms build-up in The Butter Battle Book, gave voice to the environmental movement in The Lorax ("I speak for the trees!") and grumped about the materialism of Christmas in How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

"He was a father of political correctness - but the good sort, because he aims to be fun. He had that magic that allowed him to get across his point but not feel like it was a Sunday-school lecture," says Charles Cohen, author of The Seuss, the Whole Seuss and Nothing But the Seuss.