UC San Diego Libraries to Hold Dr. Seuss Birthday Party March 3

Pat Jacoby | February 25, 2008

Members of the University of California, San Diego campus community and Dr. Seuss fans are invited to participate in a celebration marking the 104th birthday of the late Theodor Seuss Geisel — known as Dr. Seuss to the book-reading world — to be held at 11:50 a.m. March 3 on Library Walk outside the UC San Diego Geisel Library. A giant inflatable Cat in the Hat will mark the birthday celebration site.

Free punch and some 2,000 pieces of cake will be served to mark the occasion. Audrey Geisel, widow of the beloved author, will be on hand to cut the first pieces of cake, joined by UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox and the Audrey Geisel University Librarian Brian E.C. Schottlaender in handing out cake and greeting attendees.

The UCSD community celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday in 2007.

Matthew Swagler, an undergraduate student at UCSD’s Sixth College, has composed a special piece for the chimes atop Geisel Library, to be played at 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. March 3. The piece was commissioned by the UCSD Arts Library and University Carillonneur Scott Paulson to celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Also performing will be the Teeny Tiny Pit Orchestra, led by Paulson, playing songs from The Cat in the Hat Songbook.

UC San Diego’s Geisel Library is named in honor of the famed author who died in La Jolla in 1991, and his widow, Audrey Geisel. UCSD received Geisel’s collection of drawings, notebooks and other memorabilia following his death, and four years later Audrey Geisel made a substantial donation to support the university’s libraries. Last year Geisel made a $1 million gift to UCSD Libraries to establish San Diego’s first university librarianship, held by Schottlaender.

Preceding the March 3 cake cutting, Chancellor Fox will read several Seuss books to second graders at Alcott Elementary School in La Jolla at 9:30 a.m. to celebrate both the Dr. Seuss birthday and the national Read Across America Day.

UC San Diego’s Mandeville Special Collections Library is the main repository in the nation for the original works of Dr. Seuss. The approximately 8500 items in the Dr. Seuss collection, which includes original drawings, manuscript drafts, books, notebooks, photographs and memorabilia, document the full range of Theodor Seuss Geisel’s creative achievements, beginning in 1919 with his high school activities and ending with his death in 1991.

With more than three million volumes in its collections, the UCSD Libraries is the largest academic library system south of Los Angeles. Comprising 10 distinct libraries ranging from art and oceanography to biomedicine and special collections, the UCSD Libraries rank in the top 25 U.S. public libraries among the members of the prestigious Association of Research Libraries.