Becoming Dr. Seuss
Theodor Geisel and the Making of an American Imagination
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Narrated by:
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Mike Chamberlain
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By:
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Brian Jay Jones
About this listen
The definitive, fascinating, all-reaching biography of Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss is a classic American icon. Whimsical and wonderful, his work has defined our childhoods and the childhoods of our own children. The silly, simple rhymes are a bottomless well of magic, his illustrations timeless favorites because, quite simply, he makes us laugh. The Grinch, the Cat in the Hat, Horton, and so many more are his troupe of beloved and uniquely Seussian creations.
Theodor Geisel, however, had a second, more radical side. It is there that the allure and fascination of his Dr. Seuss alter ego begins. He had a successful career as an advertising man and then as a political cartoonist, his personal convictions appearing, not always subtly, throughout his books - remember the environmentalist of The Lorax? Geisel was a complicated man on an important mission. He introduced generations to the wonders of reading while teaching young people about empathy and how to treat others well.
Agonizing over word choices and rhymes, touching up drawings sometimes for years, he upheld a rigorous standard of perfection for his work. Geisel took his responsibility as a writer for children seriously, talking down to no reader, no matter how small. And with classics like Green Eggs and Ham and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Geisel delighted them while they learned. Suddenly, reading became fun.
Coming right off the heels of George Lucas and best-selling Jim Henson, Brian Jay Jones is quickly developing a reputation as a master biographer of the creative geniuses of our time.
©2019 Brian Jay Jones (P)2019 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Nonfiction
“Becoming Dr. Seuss is more compelling than mere pop hagiography; it is sweeping in scope, unstinting in detail, and willing to criticize or contextualize when needed.” (The New Yorker)
“Finally! The solution to the mystery of where Dr. Seuss earned his Ph.D. Brian Jay Jones also reveals the true identity of Chrysanthemum Pearl; the etymology of the word 'nerd'; the political leanings of Horton and Yertle; and the relationship of Krazy Kat to the one in the hat. It comes as no surprise that Theodore Geisel was a born story-teller; prying truth from fact, Jones pins our favorite fabulist nimbly, colorfully, and splendidly to the page.” (Stacy Schiff, author of The Witches)
“[Geisel's] epic transformation into one of the most beloved and bestselling children’s writers of all time, winner of Oscars and a Pulitzer, is a poignant, affecting tale of a man who mastered the art of concision through imagination and sheer toil yet could never bring such exactitude to his own life.... In Jones’s telling, the Seussian legacy emerges triumphant, elevating the power of children’s literature." (Caroline Fraser, author of Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder)
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The defining, behind-the-scenes chronicle of one of the most extraordinary, beloved, and dominant pop cultural entities in America’s history - Marvel Comics - and the outsized personalities who made Marvel, including Martin Goodman, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby.
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It's as if this book was written for me!
- By Greg on 03-15-13
By: Sean Howe
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The Stephen King Companion
- Four Decades of Fear from the Master of Horror
- By: George Beahm
- Narrated by: Fleet Cooper, Claire Christie
- Length: 24 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The Stephen King Companion is an authoritative look at horror author King's personal life and professional career, from Carrie to The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. King expert George Beahm, who has published extensively about Maine's main author, is your seasoned guide to the imaginative world of Stephen King, covering his varied and prodigious output: juvenalia, short fiction, limited edition books, best-selling novels, and film adaptations.
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A Kingopedia: Books, Movies, Bio and Art
- By tru britty on 02-28-16
By: George Beahm
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She Made Me Laugh
- My Friend Nora Ephron
- By: Richard Cohen
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning journalist Richard Cohen, wrote this about his "third-person memoir": "I call this book a third-person memoir. It is about my closest friend, Nora Ephron, and the lives we lived together and how her life got to be bigger until, finally, she wrote her last work, the play, Lucky Guy, about a newspaper columnist dying of cancer while she herself was dying of cancer. I have interviewed many of her other friends - Mike Nichols, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, Arianna Huffington.
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Loved it!
- By Leigh Lerro on 10-27-17
By: Richard Cohen
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Street Gang
- The Complete History of Sesame Street
- By: Michael Davis
- Narrated by: Caroll Spinney
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Abridged
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When the first episode aired on Nov. 10, 1969, Sesame Street revolutionized the way education was presented to children on television. It has since become the longest-running children's show in history, and today reaches 8 million pre-schoolers on 350 PBS stations and airs in 120 countries. Street Gang is the compelling and often comical story of the creation and history of this media masterpiece and pop culture landmark.
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An important subject, but hardly gripping
- By Scott T. Hards on 09-24-10
By: Michael Davis
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Reading My Father
- A Memoir
- By: Alexandra Styron
- Narrated by: Alexandra Styron
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Alexandra Styron's parents—the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sophie’s Choice and his political activist wife, Rose—were, for half a century, leading players on the world’s cultural stage. Alexandra was raised under both the halo of her father’s brilliance and the long shadow of his troubled mind. Reading My Father portrays the epic sweep of an American artist’s life. It is also a tale of filial love, beautifully written with humor, compassion, and grace.
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William Styron Ranks...
- By Douglas on 12-22-13
By: Alexandra Styron
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Salinger
- By: David Shields, Shane Salerno
- Narrated by: Peter Friedman, January LaVoy, Robert Petkoff, and others
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Shields and Salerno illuminate most brightly the last 56 years of Salinger’s life: a period that, until now, had remained completely dark to biographers. Provided unprecedented access to diaries, letters, legal records, and secret documents, listeners will feel they have, for the first time, gotten beyond Salinger’s meticulously built-up wall. The result is the definitive portrait of one of the most fascinating figures of the 20th century.
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Ingenious novel or biography? Hard to tell....
- By Melinda on 09-05-13
By: David Shields, and others
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Author in Chief
- The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote
- By: Craig Fehrman
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In Craig Fehrman’s groundbreaking work of history, Author in Chief, the story of America’s presidents and their books opens a rich new window into presidential biography. From volumes lost to history - Calvin Coolidge’s Autobiography, which was one of the most widely discussed titles of 1929 - to ones we know and love - Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father, which was very nearly never published - Fehrman unearths countless insights about the presidents through their literary works.
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Fascinating
- By Jean on 03-12-20
By: Craig Fehrman
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Process
- The Writing Lives of Great Authors
- By: Sarah Stodola
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Ernest Hemingway, Zadie Smith, Joan Didion, Franz Kafka, David Foster Wallace, and more. In Process, acclaimed journalist Sarah Stodola examines the creative methods of literature's most transformative figures. Each chapter contains a mini biography of one of the world's most lauded authors, focused solely on his or her writing process.
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Excellent!
- By Davina Rush on 04-10-15
By: Sarah Stodola
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Draft No. 4
- On the Writing Process
- By: John McPhee
- Narrated by: John McPhee
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Draft No. 4 is an elucidation of the writer's craft by a master practitioner. In a series of playful but expertly wrought essays, John McPhee shares insights he's gathered over his career and refined during his long-running course at Princeton University, where he has launched some of the most esteemed writers of several generations. McPhee offers a definitive guide to the crucial decisions regarding structure, diction, and tone that shape nonfiction pieces and presents extracts from some of his best-loved work, subjecting them to wry scrutiny.
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McPhee is the Craft
- By Darwin8u on 09-19-17
By: John McPhee
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Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story
- A Life of David Foster Wallace
- By: D. T. Max
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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David Foster Wallace was the leading literary light of his generation, a man who not only captivated readers with his prose but also mesmerized them with his brilliant mind. In this, the first biography of the writer, D. T. Max sets out to chart Wallace’s tormented, anguished, and often triumphant battle to succeed as a novelist as he fights off depression and addiction to emerge with his masterpiece, Infinite Jest.
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Max avoids hagiography or a sycophant's biography
- By Darwin8u on 06-11-13
By: D. T. Max
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The Chief
- The Life of William Randolph Hearst
- By: David Nasaw
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 30 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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William Randolph Hearst, known to his staff as the "Chief", was a brilliant business strategist and a man of prodigious appetites. By the 1930s, he controlled the largest publishing empire in the United States, including 28 newspapers, the Cosmopolitan Picture Studio, radio stations, and 13 magazines. He quickly learned how to use this media stronghold to achieve unprecedented political power. In The Chief, David Nasaw presents an intimate portrait of the man famously characterized in the classic film Citizen Kane.
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Fascinating but
- By Michael on 02-17-22
By: David Nasaw
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City Boy
- My Life in New York During the 1960s and '70s
- By: Edmund White
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In the New York of the 1970s, in the wake of Stonewall and in the midst of economic collapse, you might find the likes of Jasper Johns and William Burroughs at the next cocktail party, and you were as likely to be caught arguing Marx at the New York City Ballet as cruising for sex in the warehouses and parked trucks along the Hudson. This is the New York that Edmund White portrays in City Boy: a place of enormous intrigue and artistic tumult.
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Pretense upon pretense.
- By Shalin Desai on 06-01-15
By: Edmund White
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To this day, mention the name “Andy Warhol” to almost anyone and you’ll hear about his famous images of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. But though Pop Art became synonymous with Warhol’s name and dominated the public’s image of him, his life and work are infinitely more complex and multifaceted than that. In Warhol, esteemed art critic Blake Gopnik takes on Andy Warhol in all his depth and dimensions.
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What listeners say about Becoming Dr. Seuss
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Raven's Edge
- 10-04-21
the man behind the books
what an informative and thorough story of Theodor Geisel's life. The good, the bad and the ugly.
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- M. Hayes
- 11-27-23
Wonderful story
Wonderful story of an amazing man. Who is mind never lost the ability to think like a child.
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- Bailey Rose
- 10-21-23
Endearing and Lovable
I loved, and still do love, Dr. Seuss books as do my grandchildren. This biography gave such insight to Theodor Seuss Geisel’s life. What a strong, endearing man who strived for perfection in his work. I hope that he knew how many lives he touched, how loved he was, and that his life works were perfect to all of us.
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- Lorraine Hayward
- 04-03-22
Enjoyable and informative
Brian Jay Jones has a knack for covering the eccentric American auteur whether the subject be a children’s book author, the father of Star Wars or the dreamer of The Rainbow Connection. He continues that streak of providing informative, detailed and personal biographies with this biography on Dr.Seuss. It was comprehensive, covering Seuss from his childhood to his last days. Most other books I have read on Seuss seem to be looking for some boogeyman, something insidious in the man, Seuss. They felt more like cheap tabloids and smear campaigns than genuine biographies. Jones doesn’t follow that line of thinking. He shows Seuss as a human; flawed and fabled. Covering such things as his regrettable caricatures earlier in Seuss’s career to his evolving stance on social issues and his previous work as he aged. The book is nuanced in showing the creative genius and the complexity of his life and work. Covering the decline and tragic ending of his first marriage, as well as the revitalizing effect of his second marriage. Overall, this was an enjoyable reading and worth the listen for anyone who loves children’s publishing, American pop culture or just a plain good biography.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-17-19
Brian Jay Jones does it again!
Another wonderful, meticulously researched, entertaining and entertaining biography by Brian Jay Jones. If you have read Dr. Seuss and are curious about learning more about the man’s journey of writing the stories (among his other artistic endeavors) that many of us grew up, it’s a must-read!
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5 people found this helpful
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- mmac
- 08-27-19
Amazing story about an amazing genius
Revealing story about an amazing man and his life and passions. Dr. Seuss taught me to read, then taught my daughters to read. Surely, he will also teach my grandchildren and their children to read too. This biography provides insight into where those wonderful stories and drawings came from. Ted G led a marvelous life and has left humankind with a magical gift for all the "people" he spoke to through his stories.
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2 people found this helpful
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- nick
- 12-22-21
It's so worth it
This biography of Dr Seuss is top notch. His story is inspiring and honest.
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1 person found this helpful
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- JOSEPH
- 03-08-20
Wonderful Life
What a wonderful life! He’s brought so much joy to millions of us with his imagination. Just really neat to learn about the time and effort that went into his classics.
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- barb
- 01-25-22
Real eye opener - Who knew the depth of Dr. Suess
at first the narration seemed dull but as the story developed I got used to his style. The story is quite long but with all of the events that occurred in Dr Seuss's long life I realized it was necessary in order to get the real depth of his influence and character. I enjoyed it fully.
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3 people found this helpful
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- AMY
- 03-21-20
A Literary Genius and Artistic Master
This comprehensive biography of, perhaps, one of the most creative minds of our modern world is both educational and inspiring. I loved this portrait of the artist, professional, and man. What Dr. Suess did for literary pedagogy was brilliant and timeless. The details of his personal life offered a glimpse into the manifestation of this incredible collection of art and poetic word. After reading this, I love his work even more.
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1 person found this helpful