Who took on a pen name by adding Dr. to his mother’s maiden name, although he was not a real doctor?

Theodor Geisel, known today as Dr. Seuss, was a student of English literature in his youth. While attending Oxford to get a Ph.D. in the 1920s, his future-wife persuaded him to pursue his dreams as a writer and illustrator. 

Geisel took the name “Seuss” from his mother’s side of the family. Still, the story behind the moniker goes much deeper than that. While a student at Dartmouth during Prohibition, he was caught drinking gin one night with his fellow students. Being caught with contraband was a major offense at the time. He was not expelled, but he was forced to resign from extracurriculars, including his post as editor-in-chief of the Jack-O-Lantern. Not willing to quit, Theodor Geisel found a clever way to stay involved: he’d continue writing, just not under his own name. And this is how Dr. Seuss was born.

Upon returning to America, Geisel decided to pursue cartooning full-time. 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.

Geisel next worked for Standard Oil in the advertising department, where he spent the next 15 years. His ad for Flit, a popular insecticide, became nationally famous.

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.

Picture Credit : Google

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