Geisel 101

[ltmurnau]

It has been brought to my attention that I have missed the 101st birthday of Theodore Geisel, also known as "Dr. Seuss".

Not many people know of the work this gentle, kind man (who never actually had any children of his own and reportedly did not like having the actual article around him) did for the war effort. Here are some samples:





More to be found at http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dspolitic/.

Happy fucking birthday, Dr. T.

Comments

[jodymeme.livejournal.com]

yikes! i've seen a lot of his war propaganda stuff before, but not that cartoon on the bottom. ouch. it looks like he supported internment. probably the a-bomb, too.

[scuttle.livejournal.com]

Not that it excuses him, but someone once reminded me that racism was more acceptable in those days.

Speaking of which; I tried twice to reply to that comment you left me about the British Riefenstahl commentary. I am almost certain the commentator was British. The film was filmed in four languages for immediate release, also that the reason I posted that was to point out was that German intolerance was not unique at the time, as you said, that just somehow got lost in the process.

[victriviaqueen.livejournal.com]

You must borrow "The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss" (ND237 S46A4 1995). It shows another side again -- the fact he was also a perv.

[iberia.livejournal.com]

Don't be too harsh, now. He was a product of his times, just like we all are. If he hadn't wrote those cartoons, would it have made a difference? I say no...in fact, some other cartoonist would have come along and taken the fat government check and done it anyways.

[xplodingsilence.livejournal.com]

It was a different time then. You don't want to know which names they gave people of ethnic minorities in this part of the world at that time.

I love Dr. Seuss. We have a lot of books at our Kindergarten of him and the kids love them (nothing racist of course!!!).