Dr Suess Is Born

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts to Henrietta Seuss and Theodor Robert Geisel. He was the son of Jewish German immigrants. He entered Dartmouth College in fall 1921 as a member of the Class of 1925.

After Dartmouth, he entered Lincoln College, Oxford, intending to earn a D.Phil in literature. At Oxford he met his future wife Helen Palmer (Nee Pisner)  he married her in 1927, and returned to the United States without earning the degree. The "Dr." in Dr Suess Geisel is just part of his pen name.    6

 

Dartmouth Students Shun Geisel

Ted, with his last name, Semitic nose and dark hair, was rejected by Dartmouth's fraternities because of his Jewish lineage. 

Ted felt the isolation during the war years, and found it continuing, though for different reasons at Dartmouth. "It took a year and a half before word got around that I was Lutheran. 5

Geisel And Lindbergh

Like others of his ilk, Geisel despised Lindbergh, especially his comments that "WW-2 was a Jewish/Communist war". Geisel's political cartoons, later published in Dr. Seuss Goes to War, painted Chancellor Hitler as a tyrant, but praised the Bolshevik butcher Stalin.  He was highly critical of Charles Lindbergh, who opposed American entry into the war. 9
 

Dr Seuss Was A Bolshevik At Heart

Geisel's political cartoons showed his disdain for Germany's nationalism. His cartoons tended to regard the fear of communism as overstated, finding the greater threat in the Dies Committee and those who threatened to cut America's "life line" to Stalin.

He often said that Soviet Russia were the ones carrying "our war load". 1
 

A Victim Of Anti-Semitism

Geisel's cartoons also called attention to the early stages of the Holocaust and denounced discrimination in America against African Americans and Jews, but he supported the Japanese American internment during World War II. Geisel himself experienced anti-Semitism, he was refused entry into certain circles because he was Jewish.

He Often Glorified Roosevelt 

Geisel was enraged over European depictions of Roosevelt as a Zio-lackey. He deplored the racism at home that painted Jews as war-instigators. Despite recent history, most Americans wanted no part of WW-2.  The general public were critical of Roosevelt, and connected him to suspected communists.  

A Touch Of Risqué Writings

He made of series of adult comic books such as Private Snafu, a series of adult army training films.