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Sure, he wasn't a real doctor (not even in literature), nor was his last name Seuss (his real name was Theodor Geisel; the "doctor" was just a joke), but who cares? His easy rhyming style, simple vocabulary, and playful characters were embraced by children worldwide. Having written so many successful books for children proves that Dr. Seuss must have had a truly uncanny connection to the young rascals, right?

What He Was Really Like:

Dr. Seuss not only never liked children, but was actually scared of them. He never had children of his own, and according to his widow, the reason he didn't like them was that he never knew what their weird child brains would make them do next.

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He himself once said, "They terrify me." So why did he write so many books for kids, risking being hounded by dozens of little urchins looking for an autograph (or worse, a hug) whenever he left his home? That came about more or less by accident. By the '50s, Dr. Seuss had written some books for young readers, but also for adults, plus some ... problematic (racist) political cartoons, and even a series of racy animated shorts called Private Snafu. In 1954, Time ran an article about the rise of illiteracy among children, citing Seuss' works as a good example of books that kids were more likely to pick up, simply because they weren't extremely fucking boring.

As a result, Dr. Seuss' publisher tasked him with writing a book "even first graders couldn't put down," which meant working with a very limited vocabulary of 250 words. So it was because of his publisher that Dr. Seuss changed his writing style and wrote his popular masterpieces about vandalistic cats and expired food. These were considered "beginner books" (which doesn't mean Dr. Seuss didn't labor over them for months), but they still overshadowed all his other work. It also probably helped that, as much as he disliked children, he hated adults even more.

The Art of Dr. Seuss