Dr. Seuss was the pen name of Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904 to 1991), the American author and illustrator of more than 60 children’s books, among them “The Cat in the Hat”, “Green Eggs and Ham” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”. His books had sold over 600 million copies and been translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death.
Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, where his father managed the family brewery. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1925, having begun to sign his work “Seuss” for the college humour magazine, and went on to Lincoln College, Oxford, which he left without a degree. Back in the United States in 1927 he worked as a magazine cartoonist and advertising illustrator, including a long-running campaign for the insecticide Flit. During the Second World War he drew political cartoons for the New York newspaper “PM”.
His first children’s book, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street”, appeared in 1937. Two decades later William Spaulding of Houghton Mifflin challenged him to write a story for beginning readers using a list of 250 words. The result, “The Cat in the Hat” (1957), used 236 of them, and Geisel went on to write many more books in the same simplified vocabulary, sold as Beginner Books. “Green Eggs and Ham” and “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” followed in 1960.
For books he wrote but did not illustrate, Geisel used the name Theo. LeSieg (Geisel spelled backwards), beginning with “Ten Apples Up on Top!” in 1961, and he published one book as Rosetta Stone. The last book published in his lifetime was “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” (1990).
Three of his books were Caldecott Honor titles, and he received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal in 1980 and a special Pulitzer Prize in 1984. Screen versions include the 1966 animated “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”, the 2000 live-action film starring Jim Carrey and the animated features “Horton Hears a Who!” (2008), “The Lorax” (2012) and “The Grinch” (2018).
Geisel died at his home in La Jolla, San Diego, on 24 September 1991. Books have continued to appear from his papers, including “What Pet Should I Get?” (2015) and “Sing the 50 United States!”, a manuscript found in 2025 and published in June 2026. In 2021 Dr. Seuss Enterprises stopped publishing six titles, among them “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” and “If I Ran the Zoo”, saying they portrayed people in hurtful ways.
Publication Order of The Cat in the Hat Books
| The Cat in the Hat | 1957 |
| The Cat in the Hat Comes Back | 1958 |
| The Cat in the Hat Song Book | 1967 |
| The Cat’s Quizzer | 1976 |
| I Can Read with My Eyes Shut! | 1978 |
Publication Order of Horton Books
| Horton Hatches the Egg | 1940 |
| Horton Hears a Who! | 1954 |
Publication Order of Bartholomew Cubbins Books
| The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins | 1938 |
| Bartholomew and the Oobleck | 1949 |
Publication Order of Dr. Seuss Books
| And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street | 1937 |
| The King’s Stilts | 1939 |
| The Seven Lady Godivas | 1939 |
| McElligot’s Pool | 1947 |
| Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose | 1948 |
| If I Ran the Zoo | 1950 |
| Gerald McBoing-Boing | 1952 |
| Scrambled Eggs Super! | 1953 |
| On Beyond Zebra! | 1955 |
| If I Ran the Circus | 1956 |
| How the Grinch Stole Christmas! | 1957 |
| Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories | 1958 |
| Happy Birthday to You! | 1959 |
| One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish | 1960 |
| Green Eggs and Ham | 1960 |
| The Sneetches and Other Stories | 1961 |
| Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book | 1962 |
| Dr. Seuss’s ABC | 1963 |
| Hop on Pop | 1963 |
| The Cat in the Hat Beginner Book Dictionary | 1964 |
| Fox in Socks | 1965 |
| I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew | 1965 |
| The Foot Book | 1968 |
| I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and Other Stories | 1969 |
| My Book About Me | 1969 |
| I Can Draw It Myself | 1970 |
| Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? | 1970 |
| The Lorax | 1971 |
| Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! | 1972 |
| Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? | 1973 |
| The Shape of Me and Other Stuff | 1973 |
| There’s a Wocket in My Pocket! | 1974 |
| Great Day for Up! | 1974 |
| Oh, the Thinks You Can Think! | 1975 |
| Oh Say Can You Say? | 1979 |
| Hunches in Bunches | 1982 |
| The Butter Battle Book | 1984 |
| You’re Only Old Once! | 1986 |
| I Am Not Going to Get Up Today! | 1987 |
| Oh, the Places You’ll Go! | 1990 |
Publication Order of Theo. LeSieg and Rosetta Stone Books
| Ten Apples Up on Top! | 1961 |
| I Wish That I Had Duck Feet | 1965 |
| Come Over to My House | 1966 |
| The Eye Book | 1968 |
| I Can Write! A Book by Me, Myself | 1971 |
| In a People House | 1972 |
| Wacky Wednesday | 1974 |
| The Many Mice of Mr. Brice / The Pop-Up Mice of Mr. Brice | 1974 |
| Would You Rather Be a Bullfrog? | 1975 |
| Because a Little Bug Went Ka-Choo! | 1975 |
| Hooper Humperdink...? Not Him! | 1976 |
| Please Try to Remember the First of Octember! | 1977 |
| Maybe You Should Fly a Jet! Maybe You Should Be a Vet! | 1980 |
| The Tooth Book | 1981 |
Publication Order of Posthumous Books
| Daisy-Head Mayzie | 1995 |
| My Many Colored Days | 1996 |
| Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! | 1998 |
| The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories | 2011 |
| Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories | 2014 |
| What Pet Should I Get? | 2015 |
| Dr. Seuss’s Horse Museum | 2019 |
| Sing the 50 United States! | 2026 |
Photo: Al Ravenna, New York World-Telegram and the Sun (Library of Congress), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).