Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel

Mike is fun to take to the library because he will pick up random books that look interesting. This last week he grabbed "Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel: A Biography" by Judith and Neil Morgan and it was a treasure to read. I usually avoid biographies because they're not always very good reading. Either dull or colored by the biographers views. The authors of this were obviously well-researched and made it easy reading. I've always been a big Dr. Seuss fan, but sometimes reading a loved figure's history makes them seem not so magical anymore. This biography just endeared Dr. Seuss to me more. Some interesting things I learned were that Ted Geisel participated quite a bit in the roaring 20s, he was nervous around children, had debilitating claustrophobia and stage fright, was married twice to two women who served as muses and organizers to his artistic mind, and was a talented painter. Ted Geisel always wanted to be taken seriously as an artist, but never got recognition except as a great contributor to children's books. Well, until he died anyway. He had an art show in the 80s with original sketches and paintings, but one reviewer said that it wasn't real art. Well, now those paintings go for 25K or more. I've already got my favorite print picked out if I ever have $1695 lying around, waiting to be spent. It's called "The Joyous Leaping of Uncanned Salmon" and I love it. Another favorite is "Venetian Cat Singing Oh Solo Meow" but it's sold out. For a mere $325 I can get "Oh the Stuff You Will Learn" which comes from one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books, "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!" Coincidentally, that's where I get the title of my blog. The Cat says that reading with his eyes shut "is bad for my hat and makes my eyebrows get red hot. So reading with my eyes shut I don't do an awful lot."

By the time I got to the end of the book and read about his death, I mourned as if he was a favorite uncle, even though it was over a decade ago. Ah, Dr. Seuss. He thoroughly loved making his books and I so thoroughly love reading them.