December 16, 2003

Three Exhibitions Featuring Work Of Theodor Seuss Geisel
Will Mark The Author's 100th Birthday Anniversary At UCSD

By Pat JaCoby

Three public exhibitions drawn from the extensive Dr. Seuss Collection at the University of California, San Diego will be mounted by UCSD’s Geisel Library during the 100th birthday anniversary year of famed author Theodor Seuss Geisel.

Opening Jan. 5, 2004, the first major exhibition, The Dr. Seuss You Never Knew, features early work from Geisel’s school days at Dartmouth and Oxford, his advertising and magazine work from the 1920’s and 1930’s and his illustration work for other authors. Additionally, the show includes his penetrating World War II cartoons for PM Magazine and his work for the U.S. Army.

While Geisel is internationally known for his children’s books, this initial exhibit illustrates his little known but highly successful career as a commercial and advertising artist and his strong editorial cartoons. It also will include early photographs of the author.

The exhibit on the main floor of Geisel Library continues to March 27, 2004.

The second exhibition, Dr. Seuss Between the Covers, runs from May 24 to Sept.4 and focuses on the children’s books for which Geisel is so beloved. The show will include finished drawings, mock-up books and published works created by Geisel from And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937) to Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (1990).

Geisel’s style of flamboyant, colorful illustrations, surreal surroundings and clever yet simple rhymes is readily recognizable in these original works, which also taught reading, self-confidence and the wonderful possibilities of the imagination.

The third exhibit in late fall, The Cat in the Hat for President, will focus on how Dr. Seuss and his creations have become commonplace features of American life and the American imagination.

Meanwhile, on March 2, 2004—the late author’s birth date—a bronze sculpture of Theodor Seuss Geisel will be unveiled by Audrey Geisel, widow of the author, during ceremonies on the Forum level of Geisel Library. As a component of the observance, U.S. Postal Service dignitaries will participate in a first-day issuance ceremony for a postage stamp featuring a color photograph of the author surrounded by illustrations of six characters from his books. The stamp will become available nationally on that date.

Geisel wrote 44 children’s books which have been translated into more than 20 languages and sold more than 500 million copies. Most of his original work is included in the extensive Dr. Seuss Collection at UCSD’s Geisel Library. The approximately 8,500 items in the collection document the full range of Geisel’s creative achievements, beginning in 1919 with his high school activities and ending with his death in 1991. An overview of the collection can be found at http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/collects/seuss.html.

For information on hours of the exhibitions please call (858) 534-2533.

Media Contact: Pat JaCoby, (858) 534-7404