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The Secret Story of Seuss

September 25, 2008 - 9:44am — Great Western Dragon

Nixon! Environmentalism! Hitler! War!

The latest bestseller? Historical fiction? A new take on the Cold War?

No, they're just a few of the themes and controversies behind the world's greatest author of children's books. Take a look at some of the lesser known stories behind the literary world's most loved books. Even if Dr. Seuss never set out to start trouble, sometimes trouble just kind of finds you.

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September 25, 2008 - 10:37am — Anonymous (not verified)

Truax

Eight libraries have "The Truax" a logging industry book to counter "The Lorax". Book is mentioned in the linked article. I find these derivative books interesting. I thought the Truax book would be harder to find but if a Suess collector wanted to add one to their collection a copy can be found on Amazon for under $5.

See:

WorldCat record for book:
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/39462972&referer=brief_results

Book on Amazon:
TRUAX

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September 25, 2008 - 11:14am — Lee Hadden

Just a Good Guy

In the early 1980s, we had a hippie sort of guy on the library staff. For his 21st birthday, he wrote to everyone he could think of to invite them to his birthday party- the Queen of England, the President, the NC State Governor, etc.

Most people ignored his invitation. Of the few responses he got, Theodor Geisel not only sent a really warm response regretfully declining the invitation, but he also drew a Cat in the Hat with a wildly tilted Dr. Seuss kind of birthday cake with 21 lighted candles on the letter. My cynicism was piqued, but the indentions from the ball point pen strokes were visible, and it was an actual, unique hand drawing on the letter, not a pre-printed stationary page.

That was almost thirty years ago, and I'm still impressed with what a nice guy he was.

R. Lee Hadden (These are my own opinions!)

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