Dr. Seuss (1904-1991) & Friends: The Festival of Light Session 1. Monday, December 18 (6:30-8 p.m.) repeated Tuesday, December 19, 2017 (9:30-11 a.m.) REVISED DATES: Session. Monday, January 22 (6:30-8 p.m.) repeated Tuesday, January 23 (9:30-11 a.m.) Session 1 Seuss & Friends Readings (December 18-19) 1. Overview of Sessions 1 & 2 (December 2017 and January 2018) page 1 2. Geisel/Seuss: Life and Achievement pages 1-2 3. Dr. Seuss, Horton Hatches the Egg (194o) pages 3-5 4. Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1957) pages 6-9 5. George MacDonald, Life, Sermon (1867), & Poem, Wind and the Moon (1824) pages 10-11 6. Shel Silverstein, Life and Poem, The Giving Tree (1964) pages 12-14 7. Peter, Paul & Mary, Lives and Original Song, Light One Candle (1982) pages 15-17 THERE WILL BE A NEW READING PACKET FOR THE JANUARY SESSION. 1. Reading. Overview of the Seuss & Friends Sessions Session 1 (December 18-19), Dr. Seuss & Friends: The Festivals of Light. December has at least two festivals of light: Christmas and Hanukkah. This session is designed to honor both faith traditions in a discussion of the lives and writings of the following artists: the life and two works by beloved 20th C. American poet (and sculptor) Theodor Geisel-aka Dr. Seuss (Lutheran); 19th C. Scot and Congregational Minister George MacDonald (1825-1905); the controversial 20th C. American children’s author Shel Silverstein (Jewish), author of The Giving Tree (1964); avd the immensely popular in 1960’s-80s’ folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary and their song “Light One Candle, (a song written by Peter, who was Jewish); Session 2 (January 22-23). Focusing on Theodor Geisel/Dr. Seuss, we will learn more about his life, learning, his sculptures, and his artwork and sculptures. We will discuss 2 Seuss books: Horton Hears a Who and O, the Places You’ll Go. We will also read brief biographies and short selections from these authors who deal with the light and the joy of the holiday season: 19th C. American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, author of “Paul Revere’s Ride,” The Song of Hiawatha, and the poem-hymn “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”); 19th C. English poet Christina Rossetti, author of poem-hymn “In the Bleak Midwinter”); and 20th C. poet Robert Frost and his poem “The Christmas Tree,” and, as time permits, a Christmas sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 2. Reading. Theodor Geisel/Dr. Seuss (Life and Achievement Birth, College, Marriage. Dr. Seuss was born Theodor Geisel in Springfield MA; his parents were German immigrants and Ted was raised in a German-speaking Lutheran Church. After graduating from Dartmouth, Geisel attended Oxford University in England, with plans to eventually become a professor. While at Oxford, he met his future wife, Helen Palmer, whom he married in 1927. That same year, he dropped out of Oxford, and the couple moved back to the United States. Illustrator-Cartoonist. Upon returning to America, Geisel decided to pursue cartooning full-time, and his articles and illustrations were published in numerous magazines, including LIFE and Vanity Fair. A cartoon that he published in the July 1927 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, his first using the pen name "Seuss," landed him a staff position at the New York weekly Judge. He then worked for Standard Oil in the advertising department, where he spent the next 15 years. His ad for Flit, a common insecticide, became nationally famous. New Children’s Author. Around this time, Viking Press offered Geisel a contract to illustrate a children's collection called Boners. The book sold poorly, but it gave him a break into children's literature. Geisel's first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, was rejected 27 times before it was finally published by Vanguard Press in 1937. Horton Hatches the Egg (which we’ll read this session) appeared 3 years later (194o). See Reading 3, pages 3-5. Political Cartoonist. At the start of WW2, Geisel began contributing weekly political cartoons to the liberal publication PM Magazine. In 1942, too old for the draft, Geisel served with movie director Frank Capra’s Signal Corps, making animated training films and drawing propaganda posters for the Treasury Department and the War Production Board. (We’ll watch clips from these films during out 2nd Seuss session.) Part of WW2. When Ted joined the Corps when he was first stationed in California. Helen moved to be close by and began writing scripts for Disney films. After he left the Corps, they both decided they liked the climate and ease of California life. They bought an old observation towers and settled in La Jolla. Tiring of the movie business, Geisel wanted to spend more time on his children’s books. With the advent of the baby boomer generation, children’s books were in high demand. He was held in exceptionally high regard and set high Seuss, Friends, Festivals of Light--St. Richard’s Episcopal Church, Winter Park, --Session designer- facilitator Pamela Menke 1 standards. Publishers knew the close attention Ted gave to the printing of his books--particularly, the book’s typeface and the colors used for his illustrations. Children’s Primer and The Cat in the Hat. A major turning point in Geisel's career came when, in response to a 1954 LIFE magazine article that criticized children's reading levels, Random House asked him to write a children's primer using 220 vocabulary words. The resulting book, The Cat in the Hat, was published in 1957 and was described by one critic as a "tour de force." The success of The Cat in the Hat cemented Geisel's place in children's literature. The Cat in the Hat became the prototype for Random House's best-selling series: Beginner Books. This popular series combined engaging stories with outrageous illustrations and playful sounds to teach basic reading skills. During the 1950’s, Ted wrote what many consider to be the finest works: If I Ran the Zoo (1950), Scrambled Eggs Super! (1953), On Beyond Zebra! (1955), If I Ran the Circus (1956), and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!(1957). We’ll read The Grinch for this session and, if time permits, will watch the related U-Tube video. See Reading 4, pages 6-9. Awakened to the power of the children’s book as a method of learning, Ted realized that his writing had been designed to offer entertaining, yet gentle suggestions about fostering creativity and the imagination for children and in children (his first book, Mulberry Street), about the danger of following and enabling unchecked power and authority as did the Germans who followed Hitler in WW2 (Yertle the Turtle), about honoring, prizing, and protecting all people even those who could be smashed by others (Horton Hears a Who),. His new books were definitely written with more thought and purpose. He explained his insight in a 1960 essay: “Children’s reading and children’s thinking are the rock-bottom upon which this country will rise, or not….books for children have a greater potential for good or evil than any other form of literature on earth.” Ted’s Wife Helen Palmer. Ted’s wife Helen was also a successful author of children’s books, including Do You Know What I'm Going to Do Next Saturday?, I Was Kissed by a Seal at the Zoo, Why I Built the Boogle House, and A Fish Out of Water. She collaborated with Ted on an RKO film about Japan entitled Design for Death, which won the 1947 Academy Award for best documentary feature. At about age 54, she was diagnosed with cancer from which she recovered partially only to be plagued by a series of other illnesses and lived most days in pain. Even so, according to her surviving niece Peggy, she remained very much in love with Ted throughout her marriage. In the last years of her illness, she watched her husband fall in love with another woman. Increasingly despondent, she committed suicide by taking an overdose of barbiturates on October 23, 1967. Ted was devastated. He later wrote, “I didn't know whether to kill myself, burn the house down, or just go away and get lost.” Ted’s niece Peggy, who was a close friend of Helen’s commented, "Whatever Helen did, she did it out of absolute love for Ted…. [It was] Helen's her last and greatest gift to him.” More on the “other woman” later. Ted’s wife Helen committed suicide on October 23, 1967. He was grief-stricken. In addition to overseeing his business functions, his wife had served as his primary companion, collaborator, and motivator. Nine months (June 21 1968}, he married the much younger (by 18 years) Audrey Stone Dimond, with whom he had been having an affair and who had divorced her husband (a physician) after Helen Geisel’s death. Ted and Helen had no children because Helen could not conceive; Audrey had 2 daughters (9 and 14), but Ted was uneasy about becoming a full-time father so Audrey sent them away to school. She, too, had attended a Boarding School. Ted’s Second Marriage. Ted’s second marriage was a positive one, lasting until his death. Audrey assumed the management/oversight role Helen performed. At Ted’s death, she became quite wealthy from the Seuss estate which brought in a record $137.4 million in its first 10 days. She is the chief executive of Dr. Seuss Enterprises from which she receives 4% of the gross.