#theodor geisel

LIVE

“Subversive as Hell.”

That’s how Theodor Geisel described his books. He wrote to teach children about literacy but also infused his rhyming couplets with political allegory.

The star-bellied Sneetches and their plain-bellied counterparts learn an expensive lesson about the folly of racism. The tragic consequences of consumerism are witnessed by the Lorax, champion of the trees. When he learns that material wealth does not guarantee love, the Grinch’s heart grows three sizes.

(It’s a wonderful irony that Geisel gained the economic comfort to become an author by designing advertising campaigns–for Standard Oil.)

Geisel’s first best-selling story, And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street, celebrates cultural diversity. Two years later, in 1939, he wrote his biggest commercial fiasco, also a book with a cause: the liberating potential of nudism.

Though illustrated as a children’s book, The Seven Lady Godivas: The true facts, at last, about history’s barest family, was written for an adult audience. Random House lacked enthusiasm for the project but had to publish it–the price paid for persuading Geisel to defect from Vanguard Press was acceptance of the manuscript.

The story, written in prose, begins with the Godiva sisters mourning the death of their father in a riding accident. They vow not to marry until they’ve all completed quests, in the picaresque tradition, warning people about the dangers of horses.

None of the seven ever wears a stitch of clothing because, “They were simply themselves and chose not to disguise it.” From fat to thin, tall to small, each sister has her own form and shape.

Dr. Seuss (an alias derived from Geisel’s middle name and his mother’s maiden name) anticipated the body positive movement — but he was a few decades too early. When the book didn’t sell in stores, Random House tried to move them at cigar stands at a discount of more than 80 per cent.

The setback caused Geisel to take a leave of absence from writing. A fierce opponent of fascism, he became a political cartoonist for a left-learning New York newspaper opposed to isolationism. When America entered the conflict against the Axis forces, Geisel joined the military as a propagandist. He was assigned the rank of captain and made commander of the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Forces. He produced work so effective he earned the Legion of Merit.

(During this period, he supported the internment of American citizens of Japanese descent. Written in 1955, Horton Hears a Who, about an elephant who defends a microscopic world recovering from a disaster, is interpreted by some scholars as an apology.)

Later in life, Geisel lamented The Seven Lady Godivas as his “greatest failure.” The lesson he took from the experience was to quit writing for the unimaginative and prudish audience that had rejected his exhortation to make nudism the cultural norm.

Instead, future books would be just for kids. “Adults are obsolete children, and the hell with them.”