Dr. Seuss’s books have sold more than 700 million copies globally
They have been translated into more than 20 different languages
In 2020, his best-seller Green Eggs and Ham sold more than 338,000 copies in the USA alone
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish sold more than 311,000 copies in the USA
Oh, the Places You’ll Go! sold more than 513,000 copies in the USA
In 2020, he earned $33 million
This was 2nd of any dead celebrity that year behind only Michael Jackson
The Cat in the Hat took less than 3 years after publication to sell 1 million copies
Who was Dr. Seuss?
Dr. Seuss was an American author and illustrator
His real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel
He was born in Massachusetts, USA on March 2nd, 1904
He attended Dartmouth College and went on to do a post-graduate degree at Oxford but left before attaining his degree
In 1927, Geisel started to submit cartoons to magazines back in the US, and his first work under the name Dr. Seuss was published the same year
He was also commissioned to do some advertising work and became quite successful in the field
In 1931, he published his first book – an illustrated book of children’s figures of speech
In 1936, he wrote his first children’s book – And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. It was rejected by more than 20 publishers but was picked thanks to an old acquaintance from Geisel’s time at Dartmouth
After the outbreak of WWII, Geisel started working for a New York newspaper drawing political cartoons
In 1943, he joined the army and started to write propaganda films
After the war, Dr. Seuss and his wife moved out to California and he resumed his work on children’s books
In 1954 there was a report that children were struggling to learn to read because their books were boring, Geisel’s publisher set him a task to write a children’s book with the 250 most important words for young children – this book became The Cat in the Hat and contained 236 simple words
The entertaining books with a simple vocabulary were some of his most popular and still sell in the hundreds of thousands of copies each year to the modern day
In 1991, Dr. Seuss died of cancer at his home in San Diego. He was 87
How many books did Dr. Seuss write?
Geisel wrote and published 51 books in his lifetime as Dr. Seuss
He also published a further 14 books in his lifetime under pen names – 13 as Theo. LeSieg and one as Rosetta Stone
A further 17 books were published after his death in 1991 under the name Dr. Seuss
List of Dr. Seuss books
Published during Dr. Seuss’s lifetime
Title
Published
The Pocket Book of Boners
1931
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
1937
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
1938
The King’s Stilts
1939
The Seven Lady Godivas
1939
Horton Hatches the Egg
1940
McElligot’s Pool
1947
Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose
1948
Bartholomew and the Oobleck
1949
If I Ran the Zoo
1950
Gerald McBoing Boing
1952
Scrambled Eggs Super!
1953
Horton Hears a Who!
1954
On Beyond Zebra!
1955
If I Ran the Circus
1956
The Cat in the Hat
1957
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
1957
Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories
1958
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
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: The Simplest Seuss for Youngest Use
1963
The Cat in the Hat Beginner Book Dictionary
1964
Fox in Socks
1965
I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew
1965
The Cat in the Hat Song Book
1967
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?: Dr. Seuss’s Book of Wonderful Noises!
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
The Cat’s Quizzer
1976
I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!
1978
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
The Tough Coughs as He Ploughs the Dough
1987
Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
1990
Published as Theo. LeSieg
Title
Year
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. Bricea.k.a. The Pop-Up Mice of Mr. Brice
1974
Would You Rather Be a Bullfrog?
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
Published as Rosetta Stone
Because a Little Bug Went Ka-Choo!!
1975
Published after Dr. Seuss’s death
Title
Year
Daisy-Head Mayzie
1995
Dr. Seuss’s ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book!
1996
My Many Colored Days
1996
The Big Green Book of Beginner Books
1997
Oh, Baby, the Places You’ll Go!
1997
Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!
1998
Your Favorite Seuss
2004
The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories
2011
My Big Book of Beginner Books about Me
2011
Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories
2014
The Big Orange Book of Beginner Books
2015
What Pet Should I Get?
2015
The Big Aqua Book of Beginner Books
2017
Dr. Seuss’s Book of Animals
2018
Dr. Seuss’s Book of Colors
2018
Dr. Seuss’s 123
2019
Dr. Seuss’s Horse Museum
2019
What awards has Dr. Seuss won?
Dr. Seuss and his wife co-authored the 1947 documentary, Design for Death. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1947
In 1951, Gerald McBoing-Boing won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film making it his second Academy Award
In 1984, Geisel won the Pulitzer Prize “for his contribution over nearly half a century to the education and enjoyment of America’s children and their parents.”
His work has won two Emmys for Halloween Is Grinch Night in 1977 and The Grinch Grinches The Cat in the Hat in 1982
Dr. Seuss won a Peabody Award in 1971
He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Dr. Seuss built his entire career on the playfulness of language. For inventing words, bending rules, and proving that how you say something matters as much as what you say. That same spirit runs through word games. WordsRated publishes daily hints for today’s Connections and today’s Wordle, and our Word Finder and Anagram Solver are great tools for exploring what words are hiding in a set of letters.
Dr. Seuss controversy
Many of Dr. Seuss’s cartoons contained crude racial stereotypes
His first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, contained a depiction of an Asian person with lines for eyes
Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced in 2021 that 6 books would no longer be published
These include Dr. Seuss’s first book – And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
The total list of books that have been removed by Dr. Seuss Enterprises is:
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
If I Ran the Zoo
McElligot’s Pool
On Beyond Zebra!
Scrambled Eggs Super!
The Cat’s Quizzer
There has been criticism that these books have low sales and were removed as part of a branding push rather than for more altruistic reasons
The Cat in the Hat has been criticized for having racial undertones but has not been removed – many think this is due to its commercial success
