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You'd think that a wildly imaginative children's author and illustrator famed for the use of nonsensical words like "Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz" would have trouble fitting a story into the strict confines of a pre-approved vocabulary list. Yet it was precisely that limitation that inspired Theodor Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, to deliver two of his best-known works.
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In the mid-1950s, a publishing executive named William Spaulding, dismayed by the uninspiring material being foisted on young readers, challenged Seuss to write "a story that first graders can't put down," using a list of around 300 words (meant to help children learn how to read). The assignment flummoxed Seuss for a spell, until he zeroed in on two words that rhymed. Nine months later, he finished the groundbreaking The Cat in the Hat (1957), his tale of a havoc-wreaking feline — composed of only 236 distinct words.
Another publisher, named Bennett Cerf, then upped the ante by asking Seuss to write a book using only 50 different words, and bet the author $50 that it couldn't be done. Seuss again wrung his hands over the project, plastering his wall with flowchart maps to work his way through the narrative. But once again he pulled it off, leaving Cerf shaking his head in amazement upon hearing the story of the persistent Sam-I-Am and the many ways to eat a particular dish. And while the publisher allegedly never paid up, things worked out just fine from a monetary standpoint for Seuss, as Green Eggs and Ham (1960) became the top-selling title of his long, distinguished career.
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Dr. Seuss' famous pen name grew out of a college punishment.
In the spring of 1925, Dr. Seuss was still known as Ted Geisel and enjoying the final weeks of his senior year at Dartmouth College. Of course, there were strict rules governing certain types of enjoyment during Prohibition, and after he was caught drinking in his room with his buddies, Geisel was stripped of his role as editor of the college humor magazine, The Jack-o-Lantern. Undeterred, Geisel continued submitting his distinct cartoons under a series of pseudonyms, including “L. Burbank” and “D.G. Rossetti.” He eventually stuck with “Seuss,” his mother’s maiden name and his own middle name (albeit one that was originally pronounced something closer to “zoice”). The “Dr.” part came after graduation, reportedly while writing a “mock-zoological” humor feature, in a bid to make himself sound more scholarly.
Tim Ott has written for sites including Biography.com, History.com, and MLB.com, and is known to delude himself into thinking he can craft a marketable screenplay.
