Thank you, Professor Pease. I found this book on a shelf of a local hotel while I was visiting Dartmouth, speaking for the MBA class at The Tuck School of Business. I didn't know much about "Dr. Seuss" before I read your book; and, boy am I happy you wrote it!
Growing up in the 70's, I know we had Dr. Seuss books around, though I don't think I would have been able to rattle off more titles than "The Cat in the Hat," and maybe "Green Eggs and Ham."
I am very glad I had the opportunity to read more about "the good doctor" (and, if you didn't know about HOW Ted Geisel took the name "Dr. Seuss" you've simply GOT to read this book!). With just 5 chapters and right about 150 pages, you'll find all kinds of surprises about Ted's academic, professional and personal life. But, more than all of that, you'll get a good, solid dose of the creative process.
I'm walking away from reading this book with a renewed sense of the process of creativity. Of course, we often talk about the "stroke of insight" or the "sudden" epiphany...what I realized in reading this book by Professor Pease was that the process Dr. Seuss went through was just as tedious, labor intensive and stressful as any management position in a major corporation. And, as a writer, Ted wasn't as Self Employed as one might think...he was writing for a public who was voting with their dollars.
There are some important things to note while reading through this biography...things that are very general to the process many people go through as they create, mature and live up to their own self-identify:
1. Words create.
Throughout his life, Ted said things out loud. He asked for help, he told people what he was working on, and wrote...every day. In fact, when he moved to California, he had a special room where he would go to just to write; sometimes for hours a day (even overnight) as he continued creating with the words he used to tell a story. He said he'd write dozens, or even hundreds of line, looking for the perfect one that would make the story.
2. The past is present.
Like many of us, Ted had a childhood full of hardship, negative experiences and "change moments." With a German background, and a family who was prominent in the local business community, Ted had to deal with the pre-judgments that people made as he was growing up. He shared specific incidences where the way he was treated proFOUNDly affected who and how he was.
The past is always right here with us. What we do, how we act and who we are is inextricably tied to what has happened over time. Want things to be different a year or 10 from now? So, do something different today!
3. Change is constant.
Is it too cliche to add that to a blog post about someone famous? His life changed, over and over again. From selling "dozens" of royalty-dollars' worth of books a year to selling well over a million books a year by the time he passed away, Mr. Geisel definitely saw things change. For the good, for the bad...it just happened that way.
Looking at your own next 1 or 3 or 10 years, what do YOU anticipate coming your way? Or, perhaps it's easier to look backward...1, 3 or even 10 years ago, what were you doing that has an ever-present effect on how you are, what you do, and where you're going today?
A thought-provoking book, I highly recommend this impactful and engaging history about someone who I now know was much more complex than a story about a cat...in a hat.
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