Dr Seuss is famed for writing about a particular Cat, but when choosing a pet himself, he seems to have preferred dogs. Here we meet a few of them and find out more about his latest book What Pet Should I Get, which lay in an archive for more than 50 years!
Tue 2 Feb 2016 03.00 EST Last modified on Wed 20 Sep 2017 06.13 EDT
Dr Seuss was an animal lover. He is famous for writing about one Cat in particular but when choosing a pet himself, he seems to have favoured dogs. This gallery tells the story of some of the real dogs in Dr Seuss’s life and then looks at the different pets he drew in his book What Pet Should I Get? which Dr Seuss wrote over 50 years ago, but has just been published for the first time!
Dr Seuss’s first ‘pet’ was a brown stuffed toy dog given to him by his mother. Dr Seuss – whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel (Ted) – named it Theophrastus. Ted would keep Theophrastus for the rest of his life. The dog was often perched near his drawing board! In 1991 just before he died at the age of 87, Ted gave Theophrastus to his stepdaughter Lea Grey. “You will take care of the dog, won’t you?” he asked her.
Ted (Dr Seuss) got his first real live dog in around 1914 when was 10 years old. It was a Boston bulldog named Rex. Rex had a habit of walking on three of his four feet. Perhaps this is where Dr Seuss’s ideas for odd-legged animals came from!
Here’s a picture of Ted and his dog Cluny taken around 1957, beside the swimming pool at his home in La Jolla, California in the US. This was about the same time as Random House US published his 13th book The Cat in the Hat, which turned Dr Seuss into a mega famous author and celebrity.
Ted draws in the sand while his his wife Helen and dog Cluny watch on, this picture was taken around 1959 in La Jolla, California. After Helen’s death in 1967, Ted remarried. Ted and Helen liked big dogs but his second wife Audrey preferred small ones. See the next slide!
Ted and his dog Sam (short for Samantha) at his home in La Jolly in 1979. Sam is a miniature Yorkshire terrier, and was the first of many Yorkies Ted and his second wife Audrey lived with over the years. Behind them is one of Ted’s creations – a Semi-Normal Green-Lidded Fawn.
Dr Seuss’s undiscovered (until now) classic What Pet Should I Get? is about a classic childhood moment – choosing a pet. When it was written over 50 years ago it was common for people to simply buy dogs, cats, and other animals at pet shops, something that (thank goodness) doesn’t happen so much now as it’s much kinder and better to adopt pets from a shelter or rescue organisation (or from a recognised animal breeder).
Shortly after Dr Seuss’s death in 1991, his wife Audrey found a box of papers and drawings for various projects in his studio. The box was rediscovered by Audrey and Claudia Prescott (Dr Seuss’s longtime secretary and friend) in the Autumn of 2013. Among the contents were the manuscript and line art for what would become What Pet Should I Get?
Another fine illustration from What Pet Should I Get?. When Audrey and Claudia found the manuscript and line art for what would become What Pet Should I Get, they found text taped into position on the original line art. We know Dr Seuss was a perfectionist. He could spend months developing a character and deciding where to place a comma. “I know my stuff look likes it was rattled off in 28 seconds,” he said, “but every word is a struggle and every sentence is like the pangs of birth.”
The book editors and art directors had to think very carefully about each decision they made on Dr Seuss’s behalf when creating the book What Pet Should I Get? Only a few notes about colour were found with the manuscript so they had to decide about colours of the animals and creatures you see in the book. They based their decisions on other Dr Seuss books, especially One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. Some people think What Pet Should I Get actually evolved into One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, but we’ll never know for sure. And it’s wonderful to have a whole new book!
Of course as this book is by Dr Seuss, the choosing doesn’t stop with dogs, cats, fish, parrots or even monkeys. What about a new kind of pet who is tall. A tall pet who fits into a space that is small?
So what do you think, what kind of a pet did the kids get? Which would you choose if you were in the book? The story ends with a mystery, so we never find out!
