Author Bio: Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel

Yes, boys and girls, the week has come
For us to review a Dr. Seuss tome.
But first we must peek into his life
And discuss his childhood, his work, and his wife.
So come and see, come and behold,
The story of Dr. Seuss's life shall be told.

Born Theodore Geisel in March of 1904,
He wrote as Dr. Seuss, Theophrastus, LeSieg, and more.
In college, he was caught drinking too much gin,
So he had to adopt a name-of-the-pen.

He was told to give up all extracurriculars, including writing
for the school's humor paper, so he started writing as Seuss.

His first cartoon was in Saturday Evening Post;

Writing cartoons turned out to be what he loved most.

His first children's book was published in 1937,

It was originally rejected how many times? Some say 27.

Seuss's first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street

Then came the beginning of World War II,

And Geisel/Seuss wrote political cartoons.

He was critical of isolationism (and also of Hitler)

But also depicted Japanese Americans as morally littler.

After the war, he moved to the Golden State

And kids' book after kids' book did he create.

In 1967 he remarried after his wife's suicide;

He never had children with either bride.

He famously said, "You have 'em, I'll entertain 'em."

When he died of throat cancer in 1991,

Many books had he written, and awards had he won.

A memorial sculpture garden of many of his creations

Stands in Springfield, Mass. (to many fans' elation).

Many of his stories and many of his rhymes

Taught lessons and morals (you'll hear more about that in time).

Over his lifetime, Seuss published over 60 books,

But did you know you're all mispronouncing his name, you schnooks?

(Four additional lines on pronunciation,
From Seuss himself, regarding your dictation:

You're wrong as the deuce

And you shouldn't rejoice

If you're calling him Seuss.

He pronounces it Soice!     )

Noms de Plume

This week's author, Pittacus Lore, is a pseudonym, which is a fancy word for a fake name. Another fancy phrase is 'nom de plume,' which is French for pen name, or the name an author publishes under instead of their real name.

Historically, soldiers and terrorists will adopt noms de guerre (war names) to disassociate their actions from their real names. Taggers and hackers adopt pseudonyms to protect their real identities, considering their actions are illegal. Actors and musicians adopt stage names for various reasons. And writers choose pen names for many different reasons.

Hide a Personal Trait
Hey, guess what? Women haven't been treated equally for a large portion of history! So when women began publishing books, many of them had to adopt male-sounding names in order to be successful authors, despite their female-ness.

From left to right, those are George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans), George Sand (Amantine Lucille Aurore Dupin) and S. E. Hinton, who initialized her name to mask her gender.

There are several other things a celebrity might want to hide by changing their name. For example, Freddie Mercury's real name is Farrokh Bulsara; he wanted to tone down the "ethnic" sound. John Bongiovi (say it out loud, you'll get it) did the same thing.

Writing Controversial Works

Much like how taggers and hackers use a pseudonym while performing illicit activities to protect their real identities, authors of salacious, controversial, or borderline illegal works can hide their identities by publishing under false names.

Proving Themselves... When They're Already Famous

Sometimes a famous author will want to publish under a pseudonym to show that their work is still good. They want to show that it's not just their name selling the books, but the merit of their writing.

Stephen King wrote as Richard Bachman for books like The Long Walk, The Running Man, Thinner, and The Regulators, which you may recognize from my favorite murder story. On the right, Romain Gary set out to test his writing skill by seeing if his new books, published under the name Emile Ajar, would still sell without his prestigious name on them. (They did.)

Avoiding Confusion

There are only so many combinations of names in the world. With billions of us roaming around at any given time, there are bound to be duplicates, or near-duplicates, who become famous. Some celebrities change their names to avoid confusion (though they're not always successful). Winston Churchill added a middle initial "S" when he wrote, to avoid confusion with an already-published American author with the same name as him.

Collaborative Pseudonyms

This week's author, Pittacus Lore, is one name shared by two authors (as you know if you read Monday's post). This serves two main purposes. First, you don't have to worry about whose name goes first. Also, authors who wouldn't normally work together or normally wouldn't write something like the collaborative project can keep their professional distance from the project if they want.

Fictional Characters as Pseudonyms

Pittacus Lore also fits this category, because he is a character in the Lorien Legacies.

On the left are the two authors (Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee, which are aliases for Daniel Nathan and Manford Lepofsky, respectively) who make up Ellery Queen, the fictional narrator and detective of The Adventures of Ellery Queen. The middle photo is the author photo for Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler), of Series of Unfortunate Events fame, who narrates the series first-person, and participates very lightly in the events that are so unfortunate. The right photo is the author photo for Pittacus Lore.

If you wrote under a pen name, what would it be, and why?