dr seuss started writing children's books in 1937.
when did dr seuss start writing children's books?
1937
in 1937, dr. seuss (theodor seuss geisel), at the time a successful graphic artist and humorist, published his first book for children, "and to think that i saw it on mulberry street". it was immediately successful, and seuss followed up with "the 500 hats of bartholomew cubbins" in 1938, followed by "the king's stilts" in 1939, and "horton hatches the egg" in 1940, all published by random house. from 1947 to 1956 seuss had twelve children's picture books published. dr. seuss created "the cat in the hat" in reaction to a life magazine article by john hersey in lamenting the unrealistic children in school primers books. seuss rigidly limited himself to a small set of words from an elementary school vocabulary list, then crafted a story based upon two randomly selected words—cat and hat. up until the mid-1950s, there was a degree of separation between illustrated educational books and illustrated picture books. that changed with "the cat in the hat" in 1957.
picture book
after the war, geisel and his wife moved to la jolla, california, where he returned to writing children's books. he published most of his books through random house in north america and william collins, sons (later harpercollins) internationally. he wrote many, including such favorites as "if i ran the zoo" (1950), "horton hears a who!" (1955), "if i ran the circus" (1956), "the cat in the hat" (1957), "how the grinch stole christmas!" (1957), and "green eggs and ham" (1960). he received numerous awards throughout his career, but he won neither the caldecott medal nor the newbery medal. three of his titles from this period were, however, chosen as caldecott runners-up (now referred to as caldecott honor books): "mcelligot's pool" (1947), "bartholomew and the oobleck" (1949), and "if i ran the zoo" (1950). dr seuss also wrote the musical and fantasy film "the 5,000 fingers of dr. t.", which was released in 1953. the movie was a critical and financial failure, and geisel never attempted another feature film. during the 1950s, he also published a number of illustrated short stories, mostly in "redbook" magazine. some of these were later collected (in volumes such as "the sneetches and other stories") or reworked into independent books ("if i ran the zoo"). a number have never been reprinted since their original appearances.
dr. seuss