"A Book No One Will Publish"

This world-famous writer almost burned his first manuscript.

The Silly Man Who Would Not Give Up

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

            Ted Geisel made a comfortable living drawing illustrations for Vico Motor Oil, Standard Oil, Narragansett Beer, and, most notably, the household insecticide Flit. In fact, his advertising line —"Quick, Henry, the Flit!"—became a popular catchphrase.

            But Geisel wanted more, and he wasn't afraid to try. He wrote a book titled A Story No One Can Beat that tells the tale of a boy named Marco who, while walking home from school, recounts the preposterous things he dreams he sees.

            Twenty-seven publishers rejected Geisel's manuscript in the winter of 1936. Some said it was too fantastic. How outlandish to think a child would see an old man with a 20-foot-long white beard much less a Chinese boy with chopsticks, a rajah riding a blue elephant, giraffes, or a blue plane scattering confetti. 

            Other publishers said children's stories in verse form were old fashioned. After all, Geisel wrote his text in the galloping anapestic tetrameter rhyme scheme. Some editors chastised him because his book offered children no strong moral message. It was just silly.

"Too different"

            In the end, all the rejections came down to one thing. "Too different from other juveniles on the market to warrant selling," sniffed one publisher.

            Dejected, the 33-year-old Geisel trudged home carrying under his arm a portfolio that contained his manuscript and its accompanying drawings. Suddenly, coming down the sidewalk was a college friend. He asked Geisel what he was toting. 

            "That's a book no one will publish," he said, "I’m lugging it home to burn."

            It so happened Geisel's friend had just been hired as an editor in the children's book division at Vanguard Press. He asked Geisel to come straight to his office. Once there, he took Geisel to Vanguard's president. He bought the book on the spot. Twenty minutes later Geisel signed a contract.

            He did have to agree to one change — his title had to go. The book appeared as And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street! and was published under the pen name Dr. Seuss, his middle name, which he pronounced ‘SOY-ce.’

(He first used the pen name while a student at Dartmouth where his odd-ball cartoons graced its humor magazine. The authorities found liquor in his dorm room, and as punishment the administration forbade him from drawing for the magazine. Soon thereafter, however, intoxicating cartoons that looked exactly like his began appearing under the name Dr. Seuss.)

            Mulberry did modestly well. After six years, Geisel (and his whimsical alter-ego) had earned royalties of about $3,500 ($48,000 in today's dollars).

            But literary luminaries had noticed his talent. The head of the children's department in the New York City Public Library reviewed the book in The Atlantic and called it "true to the imagination of a small boy." She was so impressed she sent a copy to Beatrix Potter, the creator of Peter Rabbit who replied saying it was "the cleverest book I have met with for many years."

            More than 650 million books Dr. Seuss books have been sold in 95 nations in 20 languages. His works grow more popular every year. In 2013, Americans bought 4.8 million Dr. Seuss books, 50 percent more than in 2010.

            But Mulberry alone didn't make Geisel a legend. He had to keep at it for years before his name became a household world. The turning point came in 1957. 

Sly Smile

            That's when The Cat in the Hat appeared. It contains only 236 different words. Why? A top Houghton Mifflin editor challenged him write an entertaining book for first-graders. 

            Both he and Suess thought children's interest in reading would improve, if only they were given books that were more fun than fun could be. Geisel worked from a list of 348 words research had shown were words all first-graders needed to be able to read. 

            Geisel modeled the Cat's smile and white gloves after an elegant elderly African-American woman who ran the elevator in Houghton Mifflin's offices.

            If that day on the sideway Geisel had instead gone home and lit a fire, the world and its children would have far fewer giggles. Instead, he went on to write works that lit a fire under the consciences of millions of children—and adults. 

            His Yertle the Turtle was Hitler. The Sneeches is about anti-Semitism. (Some wear stars, just as the Nazis forced Jews to wear the Star of David on their clothes.) Horton the elephant of Horton Hears a Who! fame cares for the individual, no matter how small. The Lorax protects nature. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas preaches the woes of consumerism.

            Join the parade on Mulberry Street. Soon you'll be thinking "Now my troubles are going to have trouble with me!"

Alas, in 2020 the estate that governs Geisel’s works decided to cease publishing Mulberry Street, citing its belief that this book books “portray[s] people in ways that are hurtful and wrong." Oh, the places we’ll go….

MORAL: Work hard — luck will walk down the street towards you.