History Creator / DrSeuss

* TrampolineTummy: ''Hop on Pop'' features two anthropomorphic bear cubs jumping on their father's belly, only for him to tell them "STOP! YOU MUST NOT HOP ON POP!"

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: In 2021, the estate of Dr. Seuss opted to discontinue publishing new copies of ''And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street'', ''If I Ran The Zoo'', ''McElligot's Pool'', ''On Beyond Zebra!'', ''Scrambled Eggs Super!'', and ''The Cat's Quizzer'' due to racist imagery, which naturally led to an increase in demand for existing copies of those books.

** ''And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street'', ''Scrambled Eggs Super!'', ''[=McElligot's=] Pool'', ''On Beyond Zebra!'' ''Scrambled Eggs Super!'' and ''The Cat's Quizzer'' were discontinued in March 2021 and pulled from future publication and sales due to containing racist caricatures.

Much of his work has been [[TheFilmOfTheBook movie-fied]], whether by animation or live-action. The only movie he himself made was ''Film/The5000FingersOfDrT'', a bizarre film that proved a flop. He did collaborate with various directors (most famously his close friend Creator/ChuckJones) in adapting his stories for television, but again, those were TV specials, and not feature-length. When he passed away on September 24, 1991 due to oral cancer, the rights to all his stories and characters went to his widow, Audrey, and no adaptations could be made without her permission. After the dismal 2003 adaptation of ''Film/TheCatInTheHat'' soured her for the casting of Creator/MikeMyers (whom she was strongly against) and the adult jokes that clashed with the family friendly nature of the books, she vowed never to produce any future live-action adaptations of her husband's works for the rest of her life. Audrey herself died on December 19, 2018, at the age of 98, shortly after Warner Bros. obtained exclusive adaptation rights to all of Dr. Seuss's work.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Attempted. In his original draft of ''Hop on Pop'', he tried to sneak "contraceptive" into the words the kid lists off that he's learning about. However, his editor caught it and made him change it.

An American cartoonist and writer, Theodor Seuss Geisel (March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991), more commonly known as Dr. Seuss ([[NoPronunciationGuide pronounced "soyss" like "voice," although he later accepted "sooss"]]), was famous for his 65 children's books.

** [[https://www.drseussart.com/secret-archive-works-description "The Midnight Paintings"]] was a collection of paintings Seuss made in private. These paintings touch more on his cynical side and had a [[ArtShift very different art style]] compared to his books. Seuss requested for these to never get released to the public until after his death. Solar Sands [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WSk86uIx2E made a video giving more exposure on his "The Midnight Paintings" series.]]

Much of his work has been [[TheFilmOfTheBook movie-fied]], whether by animation or live-action. The only movie he himself made was ''Film/The5000FingersOfDrT'', a bizarre film that proved a flop. He did collaborate with various directors (most famously his close friend Creator/ChuckJones) in adapting his stories for television, but again, those were TV specials, and not feature-length. When he passed away on September 24, 1991 due to oral cancer, the rights to all his stories and characters went to his widow, Audrey, and no adaptations could be made unless she approved it. After the dismal 2003 adaptation of ''Film/TheCatInTheHat'' soured her for the casting of Creator/MikeMyers (whom she was strongly against) and the adult jokes that clashed with the family friendly nature of the books, she declared that any future film adaptations of Seuss books must be animated. Audrey herself died on December 19, 2018, at the age of 98, shortly after Warner Bros. obtained exclusive adaptation rights to all of Dr. Seuss's work.

He is the subject of the fourth book by pop culture legend biographer Brian Jay Jones, after Washington Irving, Creator/JimHenson, and Creator/GeorgeLucas.

* ''Series/TheWubbulousWorldOfDrSeuss'' (Dr. Seuss characters ''as Muppets!'', 1996-7)

* ''WesternAnimation/TheCatInTheHatKnowsALotAboutThat'' (2010-)

Much of his work has been [[TheFilmOfTheBook movie-fied]], whether by animation or live-action. The only movie he himself made was ''Film/The5000FingersOfDrT''. He did collaborate with various directors (most famously his close friend Creator/ChuckJones) in adapting his stories for television, but again, those were TV specials, and not feature-length. When he passed away on September 24, 1991 due to oral cancer, the rights to all his stories and characters went to his widow, Audrey, and no adaptations could be made unless she approved it. After the dismal 2003 adaptation of ''Film/TheCatInTheHat'' soured her for the casting of Creator/MikeMyers (whom she was strongly against) and the adult jokes that clashed with the family friendly nature of the books, she declared that any future film adaptations of Seuss books must be animated. Audrey herself died on December 19, 2018, at the age of 98, shortly after Warner Bros. obtained exclusive adaptation rights to all of Dr. Seuss's work.

* SnakeOilSalesman: Zigzagged with Sylvester [=McMonkey=] [=McBean=] in the Sneeches story. What he sells truly works and does exactly what he claims, but he cleverly uses his Star-On Machine and Star-Off Machine to milk the Sneeches for everything they've got, playing on their attitude towards those dumb stars.

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Well, ''Yertle the Turtle'' clearly wasn't one (and he wasn't truly evil, he was just greedy), but as [[WordOfGod Seuss himself said in an interview]], he ''was'' meant to be an allegorical stand-in for Hitler and those of similar philosophical bent.

* BittersweetEnding: A number of books, but ''[[Literature/TheSneetchesAndOtherStories The Sneetches]]'' is a prominent example. In the end, [=McBean=] successfully cons the sneetches out of all their money with his Star Machine gambit, leaving them penniless, but the experience teaches them how stupid and pointless racial discrimination is and learn to live as equals from that point on.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Surprisingly, involving Horton in a long lost story, ''Horton And the Kwuggerbug'', where a Kwuggerbug takes advantage of Horton's kindness, asking Horton to give him a lift to a beezelnut tree, with the promise of splitting half the nuts with him. The journey proves to be incredibly dangerous, and Horton is tempted to go back, but the Kwuggerbug reminds him that [[IGaveMyWord a deal's a deal]] and to keep going. When they finally get there, the Kwuggerbug ends up stiffing Horton by only giving him the shells, taking the good parts for himself. Enraged, Horton [[SneezeOfDoom sneezes]] blowing the bug so far away, he's never able to return to the beezelnut tree again.

* ArtEvolution: Illustrations of the earliest books, characters were not always originally depicted with "u" shaped pupils. In ''And to Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street'', nearly every character, saved for a few non-humans, were, in fact, shown with BlackBeadEyes. They had sclerae in ''The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins'' but pupils were depicted round and normal. While certain characters had the u-shaped pupils early on, others still didn't. This, before finally settling on ''all'' characters depicted as such as would be the later known style.

* AnimatedAdaptation: There have been numerous animated works based on Seuss's books, including three feature films.

* AdaptationExpansion: All of the feature films and most of the TV adaptation tend to add more material to the plot to keep from running too short.

Eventually, Seuss decided he had to do more for the war effort, and got an officer's commission with the Army. He was assigned to the Signal Corps under the command of Creator/FrankCapra to produce propaganda and instructional films for the military. His best known work in this capacity was with the ''WesternAnimation/PrivateSnafu'' cartoon series working with luminaries like Creator/ChuckJones. With that series, Seuss would be responsible for military instructional cartoons that enjoyed a content freedom undreamed of in the civilian market with his writing talent most evident in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vaupcu2qqI Rumors]]''.

Once they married and returned to the US, Seuss struggled to work professionally as a cartoonist and illustrator until he finally landed a steady gig as a cartoonist at the humor magazine, ''Judge''. At the magazine, Seuss often did ProductPlacement in his cartoons and mentioned the insecticide brand, Flit, by chance. That caught the attention of a wife of an executive at Flit and Seuss was commissioned to draw a long campaign of advertisements for Flit ("Quick Henry, the Flit!") that became a sensation for their humor, and established the trope of the CartoonBugSprayer. That got him an exclusive contract that would last 17 years that would get his family through TheGreatDepression with relatively little hardship, which made children's literature one of the few other fields he could work in.

Seuss was the son of a family of brewers, which made the Prohibition era a tough period to deal with. He went to Dartmouth College where he became the editor of the campus humor magazine, ''Jacko'' until he was caught in a drunken incident that made the Dean expel him from the editorship. An indifferent student, Seuss still went to Oxford when he made a pretence of getting a scholarship there, which forced his father to send him there on his owe money to save face. There, Seuss struggled with his studies until he met his future wife, Helen, who noticed his idle fanciful drawing in his notes looked good enough to be professional.

* [[https://www.drseussart.com/secret-archive-works-description "The Midnight Paintings"]] was a collection of paintings Seuss made in private. These paintings touch more on his cynical side and had a [[ArtShift very different art style]] compared to his books. Seuss requested for these to never get released to the public until after his death. Solar Sands [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WSk86uIx2E made a video giving more exposure on his "The Midnight Paintings" series.]]

Although breaking into children's lit was a struggle at first, Dr. Seuss' infectious charm and imagination would have him hailed as the great 20th Century master of the form. The fact that he intentionally discredited the insipid ''Literature/DickAndJane'' primer series along the way while his energetically imaginative work set the standard for modern kids' book that kids wanted to read is a testament of that talent. In fact, that success, beginning with his signature character, ''Literature/TheCatInTheHat'', would lead to Seuss having a secondary career as co-founder and editor of Random House's Beginner Books imprint which published the work of numerous talents such as Stan and Jan Berenstain of ''Literature/TheBerenstainBears'' series. However, that proved a bother to him, considering that the books Seuss personally wrote under that imprint were burdened with limits he hated like strict vocabulary lists of typically less than 300 words, even though he rose to the challenge and created his most bestselling book, ''Literature/GreenEggsAndHam'' which had a vocabulary list of only 50. Eventually, he took full control of the company and broke free to create books with all the words he wanted like ''Literature/TheresAWocketInMyPocket''.

Although breaking into children's lit was a struggle at first, Dr. Seuss' infectious charm and imagination would have him hailed as the great 20th Century master of the form. The fact that he intentionally discredited the insipid ''Literature/DickAndJane'' primer series along the way while his energetically imaginative work set the standard for modern kids' book that kids wanted to read is a testament of that talent. In fact, that success, beginning with his signature character, ''Literature/TheCatInTheHat'', would lead to Seuss having a secondary career as co-founder and editor of Random House's Beginner Books imprint which published the work of numerous talents such as Stan and Jan Berenstain of ''Literature/TheBerensteinBears'' series. However, that proved a bother to him, considering that the books Seuss personally wrote under that imprint were burdened with limits he hated like strict vocabulary lists of typically less than 300 words, even though he rose to the challenge and created his most bestselling book, ''Literature/GreenEggsAndHam'' which had a vocabulary list of only 50. Eventually, he took full control of the company and broke free to create books with all the words he wanted like ''Literature/TheresAWocketInMyPocket''.

Most of his work liberally uses [[RhymesOnADime rhyming schemes]], [[MagicAIsMagicA illogical logic]], [[{{Bizarrchitecture}} fantastical buildings]], [[PerfectlyCromulentWord nonsensical vocabulary]], and very pretty illustrations. This, at the time, was fairly radical and the epitome of avant-garde, though [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny not by today's standards]]. Seuss was a lifelong inhabitant of Springfield, Massachusetts, and drew inspiration from his surroundings; for instance, his first published children's work, ''Literature/AndToThinkThatISawItOnMulberryStreet'', took place on [[WriteWhatYouKnow a real life street.]] (The book's events occur on the intersection of Mulberry and Bliss Streets, which both exist. However, the real-world versions never cross.). Although breaking into children's lit was a struggle at first, Dr. Seuss' infectious charm and imagination would have him hailed as the great 20th Century master of the form. The fact that he intentionally discredited the insipid ''Literature/DickAndJane'' primer series along the way while his energetically imaginative work set the standard for modern kids' book that kids wanted to read is a testament of that talent.