Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was there where his grandfather founded a brewery called The Kalmbach and Geisel Brewery. His father, Theodor Robert Geisel, would later become the brewery’s president. Theodor’s father and mother, Henrietta Seuss Geisel, married in 1901. It is said that she was his inspiration to enter into the world of poetry as she would recite little rhyming chants to Theodor and his siblings
Ted, as Theodor was known, graduated from Dartmouth College. He went on to attend the University of Oxford in England, with plans to eventually become a professor. However, in 1927, two major changes occurred in Ted’s life. While studying at Oxford to become a professor, Ted met his future wife, Helen Palmer. This same year, he dropped out of Oxford and returned to the United States. Ted had made up his mind, he was going to pursue cartooning full-time.
His writings and illustrations have been published in a number of magazines, including LIFE and Vanity Fair. A cartoon he published in the July 1927 edition of The Saturday Evening Post, was the very first time Ted used the pen name "Seuss".
At the beginning of World War II, Ted started to contribute weekly political cartoons to the liberal publication PM Magazine. After the war, Ted and Helen bought an old observation tower in La Jolla, California, where he would write for at least eight hours a day, taking breaks to tend their garden.
While he is best known as Dr. Seuss, it wasn't until dropping out of the University of Oxford that the doctor was born. And yet, such a shift and dedication has produced over 60 published books. He published his first children's book, And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, under the name of Dr. Seuss in 1937; just 10 years after dropping out of the University of Oxford.
We often settle in where we are, refusing to believe that we can't accomplish more, that we can't have more. When Ted walked out of the University of Oxford and returned back to the United States, it may have been familiar territory, but the journey he was embarking on wasn't. Although he had already been writing and illustrating, this was the moment where he was taking a leap and procuring his vision of success.
