eclecticism

10/23/2003 |

I’d never heard this before, but it turns out that Dr. Seuss spent a couple years as a political cartoonist — and there’s a website that collects all of his published political cartoons.

Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel, 1904-1991) was a life-long cartoonist: in high school in Springfield, Massachusetts; in college at Dartmouth (Class of 1925); as an adman in New York City before World War II; in his many children’s books, beginning with To Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street (1937). Because of the fame of his children’s books (and because we often misunderstand these books) and because his political cartoons have remained largely unknown, we do not think of Dr. Seuss as a political cartoonist. But for two years, 1941-1943, he was the chief editorial cartoonist for the New York newspaper PM (1940-1948), and for that journal he drew over 400 editorial cartoons.

Looking through them, it’s fascinating how dated some of the cartoons are, while others seem just as relevant today. Neat stuff.

(via Mike Wedland)

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5 Responses to “Dr. Seuss…political cartoonist”

Swami Prem Says:
October 24th, 2003 at 11:23 am

It seems like the U.S. Government was using him to sell Saving Bonds.

Tacticus Says:
October 30th, 2003 at 7:15 am

seuss certainly did a lot of political books as well you might like to look for them some of them illustrate alot of stuff that still happens today

Jammie Says:
December 8th, 2003 at 6:19 am

Dr. Seuss also had plenty of political meanings behind several of his works. The Lorax is the book with the most political aspects and views. Although children do not find or understand them, adults too have trouble siting them out!

Bob Says:
December 10th, 2005 at 5:05 pm

Dr. Seuss is so cool. That is an awesome name because mine is not. I mean who names a kid Bob unless your name is short for something but mine is just Bob. the best name is Billy-Bob.