Theodor Geisel was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts.  His father worked at the Springfield Zoo, where Ted's love for animals began.  He wrote poems and stories about these creatures starting at a young age.  These early works sound a lot like the books Dr. Seuss would write later in his life.

This is an example of the poems Ted wrote while at the zoo with this father.

"So I'd open each cage.  I'd unlock every pen.

Let the animals go, and start over again...

A four-footed lion's not much of a beast.

The one in my zoo will have ten feet at least!

Five legs on the left and five more on the right.

This zoo keeper.  New Keeper.  Gerala's not quite keen.

That's the gol-darnest lion I have ever seen."

Ted began writing seriously at Central High School for the school newspaper.  He wrote many little articles until this front page debut with "O Latin" at the age of 14. As he went through high school he experimented with many different  pen names like Theo S. Geisel, T.S. Geisel, and T.S. Lesieg.  But none of them would prove to stick.

After Graduating from Darthmouth College in 1925, Ted got a job writing for the Springfield Sunday Republican where he was filling in for a popular writer named R.P.M. Ted turned R.P.M.'s serious column into a political cartoon.

Ted met Helen Palmer in an English class at Oxford University where they fell in love instantly.  He proposed the day he ran the motorcycle they had been riding in off the road.   As he assisted her out of the ditch, she accepted his proposal.  After many set backs and long distance relationships the cope was married in 1927.  Surprisingly, they couple never had children.  Sadly, Helen died in 1967.  But Ted found love again in 1969 with long time friend Audrey Stone.

Though Ted died in 1991 at the age of 87 his legacy lives on.  In 1999 the United States Postal Office issued 15 Cat in the Hat Stamps honoring the great Dr. Seuss.  Then in 2001 Theodor Geisel was named the official children's author of Massachusetts.  Also in 2001, the Broadway show Seussical the Mussical opened.  This was a collection of Dr. Seuss's most famous stories depicted on stage.