Dr. Seuss from Then to Now: A Catalogue of the Retrospective Exhibition

This book is a companion piece to an art exhibition put on by the San Diego Museum of Art in 1986. It features works from Dr. Seuss's entire career from his Depression-era days in advertising to his World War II political cartoons to his famous illustrations for his widely known children's picture books. Full-color illustrations show a sampling of the works included in the exhibition and a catalog at the end of the book lists all of them. The captions for the individual pieces leave a little to be desired, but it was really interesting to see some lesser known pieces as well as things like rougher sketches for his best known works.

The book also contains what can be best described as a long-form essay from the exhibit's curator, Mary show more Stofflet. She includes snippets of a interviews she held with the author as well as a brief biography beginning with his college days and covering his varied career. In keeping with the objective of this book to celebrate and examine the works and given that the author was still alive at the time of this exhibition, these biographical details are more career-focused than personal. This text is a little bit jumpy at times, and it occasionally feels like a point is brought up but never finished, left to hang there as the reader wonders about the rest of it. For instance, when writing about the author's The Butter Battle Book, Stofflet introduces this tidbit from her meeting with him: " 'It's a good title, too, don't you think?' asks Geisel. 'Audrey said she would leave me if I gave it the title I wanted.' " Yet we never learn what Dr. Seuss intended for the original title and the narrative quickly moves along to other topics. That being said, however, I found these biographical nuggets to be fascinating. Although I knew a fair amount about Dr. Seuss's life prior to reading this book, there were still bits and pieces in here that were new to me.

The book also has a chronology of important events in Dr. Seuss's life and publishing career. This section of the book is peppered with photographs illuminating some of these events, which was a really fun and edifying addition. In addition, the book has a bibliography of Seuss's works as well as sources of information about the author. There is also a nostalgic introduction from the museum's director, which praises the effects Dr. Seuss's books have had on generations of children and adults. show less

A biography/exhibition of Seuss's work. Covers his early school days (and how he came up with the name Dr. Seuss) through his death, including his work doing advertising.

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