"A Book No One Will Publish"

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

            Ted Geisel made a comfortable living drawing illustrations for Standard Oil, Narragansett Beer, and, most notably, the household insecticide Flit. In fact, the advertising tagline he dreamed up—"Quick, Henry, the Flit!"—became a popular catchphrase.

            But Geisel wanted more, and he wasn't afraid to try. He wrote a book titled "A Story No One Can Beat." It tells the tale of a little boy named Marco who, while walking home from school, recounts all the preposterous things he dreams of seeing.

            Twenty-seven publishers rejected Geisel's manuscript in the winter of 1936. Some said it was too fantastic. How outlandish to think a child would see an geezer with a 20-foot-long white beard, a Chinese boy with chopsticks, a rajah riding a blue elephant, giraffes, or a blue plane dropping confetti.

            Other publishers said that children's stories in verse form were too old fashioned. After all, the book was written in the galloping anapestic tetrameter rhyme scheme. Worse, some editors chastised Geisel because his book offered children no strong moral message. Why, it was—silly!

"Too different"

            In the end, all the rejections came down to one thing. "Too different from other juveniles on the market to warrant selling," sniffed one publishing house.

            Dejected, the 33-year-old Geisel trudged home carrying under his arm a portfolio that contained his manuscript and its accompanying drawings. Suddenly, coming down the sidewalk was a friend he had gone to school with at Dartmouth. He asked Geisel what he was toting.

            "That's a book no one will publish," he said, "I’m lugging it home to burn."

            It so happened that Geisel's friend had just been hired as an editor in the children's book division at Vanguard Press. He told Geisel to come with him to his office immediately. Once there, he took Geisel to Vanguard's president. He bought the book on the spot. Twenty minutes later the contract was signed.

            Geisel did have to agree to one change—His title had to go. The book appeared as "And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street!" What's more, it was published under the pen name Dr. Seuss, a name that Geisel dreamed up at Dartmouth. (He had been on the staff of the school's humor magazine. As a consequence of youthful hijinks, he had to resign. Nonetheless, cartoons that looked curiously like his continued appearing in its pages under various names, including Dr. Seuss which he thought should be pronounced "Soice.")

            The book did modestly well. After six years, Geisel (and his alter-ego voice) had earned royalties of only $3,500 (about $48,000 in today's dollars).

            But leading critics nodded approvingly. The head of the children's department in the New York City Public Library reviewed the book in The Atlantic. She called it "true to the imagination of a small boy." She was so impressed she sent a copy to Beatrix Potter, the creator of Peter Rabbit. Potter replied saying that it was "the cleverest book I have met with for many years."

            To date, more than 650 million books Dr. Seuss books have been sold in 95 nations in 20 languages. His works seem to grow more popular every year. In 2013, Americans bought 4.8 million Dr. Seuss books, 50 percent more than in 2010.

            "Mulberry Street" alone didn't make Geisel a legend. He had to keep at it for years before he became a household name. The turning point came in 1957.

Sly Smile

            That's when "The Cat in the Hat" appeared. It contains only 236 different words. Why? A top Houghton Mifflin editor challenged him write an entertaining book for first-graders.

            Both he and Suess thought children's interest in reading would improve, if only they were given books that were more fun than fun could be. Geisel worked from a list of 348 words. Research had shown that they were words all first-graders had to know how to read.

            (Geisel modeled the Cat's sly smile and white gloves after an elegant elderly African-American woman who was an elevator operator in Houghton Mifflin's offices.)

            If Geisel had gone home and lit a fire with his manuscript, the world and its children would have far fewer giggles. Instead, he write many books that lit a fire under the consciences of millions of children—and adults.

            Yertle the Turle was Hitler. Sneeches is about anti-Semitism. (Some wear 'stars on thars', just as the Nazis forced Jews to wear the Star of David pinned to their clothes.) Horton the Elephant cares for the individual, no matter how small. The Lorax protects nature. The Grinch warns against rabid consumerism.

            So, join the parade on Mulberry Street. Soon you'll be thinking "Now my troubles are going to have trouble with me!"

           

MORAL: Work hard and luck will come walking

down the street towards you.

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