The Cat in the Hat
And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street was his first children's book, written way back in 1937. The book was rejected by 27 publishers before finally being picked up by Vanguard Press, which is a division of Houghton Mifflin. Their agreement to publish the book was to the credit of a close friend of Ted's who was employed with the company. I would say Vanguard ended up being the lucky one!

Ted's fame for his children's books began in response to an article showing concern for children's illiteracy. The article gave responsibility to the boring books children were given in school to read. Houghton Mifflin and Random House came together and requested that Seuss write a book using 220 words from a list of new-reader vocabulary terms. The Cat in the Hat was born and it was a hit… but this was just the beginning.

Ted ended up writing 44 children's books and 30 of them have been adapted for video and television. Some of them have become classics like “ How the Grinch Stole Christmas ,” which aired first in 1966 and still ranks high on viewer ratings today. Dr. Seuss has also won numerous awards for these animated cartoons, including an Oscar and two Emmys.

And remember that fellow student who praised his paper doodling? He married that woman, Helen Palmer, and she became an accomplished author herself. In fact, they later co-founded Beginner Books, a division of Random House Children's Books.