This Date in History
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During the Vietnam War, both my older brothers were in the Navy. One of them was in Vietnam--as a weather man assigned to the Marines up on the DMZ--when our church was visited by the choir from some Methodist college in the Southeast. As was the custom, the members of the choir were divided up among the congregation for Sunday dinner. My family was lucky enough to get two very attractive young women.
In the after dinner conversation, the topic of Vietnam arose. My father was very progressive on just about everything but Vietnam. These two young women just couldn't believe their ears. They pointed one son was in Vietnam, another could go at anytime, and--pointing at me--said a third could go if Vietnam lasted long enough. The only argument my Dad had was that as bad as the Vietnam War was, it was better than any other alternative. That argument fell as flat then as it sounds today.
This discussion, in 1968 or 1969, was the turning point for my father, a WW2 Marine combat vet, on Vietnam. By 1972, he was so against Vietnam, he was the county chairman for George McGovern, a cause almost as futile as Vietnam. I really admired my father for having a mind open enough that it could be changed by a strong, polite, and logical argument, even if that argument was voiced by two college girls.
ETA: Had my father not lived long enough to actually see it, I don't think he would have believed that despite the fact that the US lost the Vietnam War, with-in a generation, Vietnamese teenagers would be working in factories making tennis shoes for Americans. It's like the joke on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, "If you really want to win the Vietnam War, just send a delegation of Japanese and German bankers to Hanoi and have them explain exactly what happens if you lose a war to the United States."
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He was a map geek as a kid too. Still is.If you haven't read it you should.
8f
donbosco
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#OTD (Feb. 28) in 1861 North Carolinians voted not to talk about secession. In a statewide referendum prompted by the creation of The Confederacy from Deeper South states three weeks earlier the state government called for the will of the people. With 93,995 citizens casting ballots the “Do Not Hold A Convention To Talk About Secession” tally carried the day by 651 votes.
The Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge had taken North Carolina’s electoral votes in the presidential election three months earlier. Abraham Lincoln had not appeared on the ballot. But of course the Republican had won the presidency - a reality that had set wheels spinning in Southern Slave Societies to thoughts of leaving the Union.
The states most heavily invested in enslavement broke away first - the Alabamas and Mississippis of the world - as well as our immediate neighbor, South Carolina. The Old North State watched and waited. Not until President Lincoln requested troops of the states to address the South Carolinian attack on Fort Sumpter did North Carolina cast its lot to break the Union. To be sure, Virginia and Tennessee had already signaled their intention to secede before NC joined in.
Accounts seem to indicate that when North Carolina finally made this decision there was no remorse. The state would see the most casualties of any in fact while paradoxically it would also be the source of the highest number of deserters. It would appear that the first vote - the February 28, 1861 in which Tar Heels frankly said, “Let’s don’t talk about this,” was the best course to follow.
The Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge had taken North Carolina’s electoral votes in the presidential election three months earlier. Abraham Lincoln had not appeared on the ballot. But of course the Republican had won the presidency - a reality that had set wheels spinning in Southern Slave Societies to thoughts of leaving the Union.
The states most heavily invested in enslavement broke away first - the Alabamas and Mississippis of the world - as well as our immediate neighbor, South Carolina. The Old North State watched and waited. Not until President Lincoln requested troops of the states to address the South Carolinian attack on Fort Sumpter did North Carolina cast its lot to break the Union. To be sure, Virginia and Tennessee had already signaled their intention to secede before NC joined in.
Accounts seem to indicate that when North Carolina finally made this decision there was no remorse. The state would see the most casualties of any in fact while paradoxically it would also be the source of the highest number of deserters. It would appear that the first vote - the February 28, 1861 in which Tar Heels frankly said, “Let’s don’t talk about this,” was the best course to follow.
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Aside from Dean's birthday...
For whatever reason I read this book as a teenager. Key person in the creation of Vegas as a gambling Mecca.
Bugsy Siegel (born February 28, 1906, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died June 20, 1947, Beverly Hills, California) was an American gangster who played an instrumental role in the initial development of Las Vegas gambling.
Siegel began his career extorting money from Jewish pushcart peddlers on New York’s Lower East Side. He then teamed up with Meyer Lansky about 1918 and took to car theft and, later, bootlegging and gambling rackets in New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. He and Lansky also ran a murder-for-hire operation, the forerunner of Murder, Inc. In 1931 he was one of the four executioners of Joe Masseria.
In 1937 the syndicate leaders sent him to the West Coast to develop rackets there. In California the handsome gangster successfully developed gambling dens, gambling ships (offshore beyond the 12-mile [19-km] limit), narcotics smuggling, blackmail, and other illegal enterprises and equally successfully cultivated the company and friendship of Hollywood stars and celebrities. He developed a nationwide bookmakers’ wire service and in 1945 began realizing his dream of a gambling oasis in the desert northeast of Los Angeles. In that year he built the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, originally budgeted at $1,500,000 but costing eventually $6,000,000, much of it in syndicate funds from the east.
The cost overruns involved extensive skimming by Siegel, who had his girlfriend Virginia Hill deposit the money in European banks; he also began writing bad checks to cover construction costs. Such actions and other duplicities angered Lansky and other eastern bosses. In the late evening of June 20, 1947, Siegel was killed in his palatial Beverly Hills home, brought down by a fusillade of bullets fired through his living-room window. At almost the same moment, three of Lansky’s henchmen walked into the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas and declared that they were taking over.
For whatever reason I read this book as a teenager. Key person in the creation of Vegas as a gambling Mecca.
Bugsy Siegel (born February 28, 1906, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died June 20, 1947, Beverly Hills, California) was an American gangster who played an instrumental role in the initial development of Las Vegas gambling.
Siegel began his career extorting money from Jewish pushcart peddlers on New York’s Lower East Side. He then teamed up with Meyer Lansky about 1918 and took to car theft and, later, bootlegging and gambling rackets in New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. He and Lansky also ran a murder-for-hire operation, the forerunner of Murder, Inc. In 1931 he was one of the four executioners of Joe Masseria.
In 1937 the syndicate leaders sent him to the West Coast to develop rackets there. In California the handsome gangster successfully developed gambling dens, gambling ships (offshore beyond the 12-mile [19-km] limit), narcotics smuggling, blackmail, and other illegal enterprises and equally successfully cultivated the company and friendship of Hollywood stars and celebrities. He developed a nationwide bookmakers’ wire service and in 1945 began realizing his dream of a gambling oasis in the desert northeast of Los Angeles. In that year he built the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, originally budgeted at $1,500,000 but costing eventually $6,000,000, much of it in syndicate funds from the east.
The cost overruns involved extensive skimming by Siegel, who had his girlfriend Virginia Hill deposit the money in European banks; he also began writing bad checks to cover construction costs. Such actions and other duplicities angered Lansky and other eastern bosses. In the late evening of June 20, 1947, Siegel was killed in his palatial Beverly Hills home, brought down by a fusillade of bullets fired through his living-room window. At almost the same moment, three of Lansky’s henchmen walked into the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas and declared that they were taking over.
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Great post. It has been said that Meyer Lansky never killed anyone. He didn’t have to, he had Siegel do it for him.Aside from Dean's birthday...
For whatever reason I read this book as a teenager. Key person in the creation of Vegas as a gambling Mecca.
Bugsy Siegel (born February 28, 1906, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died June 20, 1947, Beverly Hills, California) was an American gangster who played an instrumental role in the initial development of Las Vegas gambling.
Siegel began his career extorting money from Jewish pushcart peddlers on New York’s Lower East Side. He then teamed up with Meyer Lansky about 1918 and took to car theft and, later, bootlegging and gambling rackets in New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. He and Lansky also ran a murder-for-hire operation, the forerunner of Murder, Inc. In 1931 he was one of the four executioners of Joe Masseria.
In 1937 the syndicate leaders sent him to the West Coast to develop rackets there. In California the handsome gangster successfully developed gambling dens, gambling ships (offshore beyond the 12-mile [19-km] limit), narcotics smuggling, blackmail, and other illegal enterprises and equally successfully cultivated the company and friendship of Hollywood stars and celebrities. He developed a nationwide bookmakers’ wire service and in 1945 began realizing his dream of a gambling oasis in the desert northeast of Los Angeles. In that year he built the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, originally budgeted at $1,500,000 but costing eventually $6,000,000, much of it in syndicate funds from the east.
The cost overruns involved extensive skimming by Siegel, who had his girlfriend Virginia Hill deposit the money in European banks; he also began writing bad checks to cover construction costs. Such actions and other duplicities angered Lansky and other eastern bosses. In the late evening of June 20, 1947, Siegel was killed in his palatial Beverly Hills home, brought down by a fusillade of bullets fired through his living-room window. At almost the same moment, three of Lansky’s henchmen walked into the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas and declared that they were taking over.
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Meant Lansky.
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JFK gets too much credit for things LBJ and others actually did. This was one of his better accoplishments (even with it's behind the scenes imperialism at work), And damn, look at what we have become since.
1961 Peace Corps, U.S. government agency of volunteers, established by executive order by Pres. John F. Kennedy on March 1, 1961, and authorized by the U.S. Congress through the Peace Corps Act of September 22, 1961. (From 1971 to 1981 it was a subagency of an independent agency called ACTION.) The first director of the Peace Corps was Kennedy’s brother-in-law R. Sargent Shriver.
The purpose of the Peace Corps is to assist other countries in their development efforts by providing skilled workers in the fields of education, agriculture, health (there has been a particular emphasis on combating HIV/AIDS), trade, technology, environmental protection, women’s economic empowerment, and community development. Peace Corps volunteers are assigned to specific projects on the basis of their skills, education, and experience. Once abroad, the volunteer is expected to function for two years as a good neighbor in the host country, to speak its language, and to live on a level comparable to that of the volunteer’s counterparts there.
The Peace Corps grew from 900 volunteers serving 16 countries in 1961 to a peak of 15,556 volunteers in 52 countries in 1966. By 1989 budget cuts had reduced the number of volunteers to 5,100, but over the next two decades there were increases, such that by the Peace Corps’ 50th anniversary in 2011 there were more than 8,500 volunteers serving in 77 countries. In the 1990s the organization’s global reach was extended to include eastern European countries such as Hungary and Poland and republics of the former Soviet Union. Among other countries, China was added in 1993, South Africa in 1997, and Mexico in 2003. By 2018, 141 countries had hosted more than 235,000 Peace Corps volunteers.
Overseas volunteer services akin to the Peace Corps are maintained by other countries, while similar humanitarian work is sponsored by nongovernmental organizations such as Doctors Without Borders.
1961 Peace Corps, U.S. government agency of volunteers, established by executive order by Pres. John F. Kennedy on March 1, 1961, and authorized by the U.S. Congress through the Peace Corps Act of September 22, 1961. (From 1971 to 1981 it was a subagency of an independent agency called ACTION.) The first director of the Peace Corps was Kennedy’s brother-in-law R. Sargent Shriver.
The purpose of the Peace Corps is to assist other countries in their development efforts by providing skilled workers in the fields of education, agriculture, health (there has been a particular emphasis on combating HIV/AIDS), trade, technology, environmental protection, women’s economic empowerment, and community development. Peace Corps volunteers are assigned to specific projects on the basis of their skills, education, and experience. Once abroad, the volunteer is expected to function for two years as a good neighbor in the host country, to speak its language, and to live on a level comparable to that of the volunteer’s counterparts there.
The Peace Corps grew from 900 volunteers serving 16 countries in 1961 to a peak of 15,556 volunteers in 52 countries in 1966. By 1989 budget cuts had reduced the number of volunteers to 5,100, but over the next two decades there were increases, such that by the Peace Corps’ 50th anniversary in 2011 there were more than 8,500 volunteers serving in 77 countries. In the 1990s the organization’s global reach was extended to include eastern European countries such as Hungary and Poland and republics of the former Soviet Union. Among other countries, China was added in 1993, South Africa in 1997, and Mexico in 2003. By 2018, 141 countries had hosted more than 235,000 Peace Corps volunteers.
Overseas volunteer services akin to the Peace Corps are maintained by other countries, while similar humanitarian work is sponsored by nongovernmental organizations such as Doctors Without Borders.
heelinhell
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No doubt he was a great coach, but he was a far greater man.
donbosco
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For @heelinhell
Chapter 11 in ‘A Coach’s Life’ is titled “I May Be Wrong, But!” It is my favorite in a book that is never out of reach. It is Coach Smith’s “This is what I believe” essay. In it Coach Smith writes that the game of basketball gives no advantage for wealth, nor race, nor religion, nor nationality and is “about as fair as humans can make something.”
In his assisted autobiography (John Kilgo and Sally Jenkins), ‘A Coach’s Life,’ Coach Smith thinks out loud about theology, one of his favorite topics. As a man of faith he expressed his reluctance to see God’s favor in a victory — “I may be wrong, but the idea that God cheers for one team to win over another is not my idea of God.” You may not like it, or perhaps you will love to hear it, but Coach Smith was firmly and thoughtfully Left-of-Center. And that Worldview was rooted in Christian Theology and The Bible.
He stood in opposition to White Supremacy, Nuclear Proliferation, and the Death Penalty. He saw right through the Moral Majority. He protested the Vietnam War. Coach Smith spoke for ‘Gay Rights’ and Civil Rights and the dismantling of segregation - all in a state that sent Jesse Helms to the Senate five times and has, disgracefully, more recently been carried in presidential elections three times by trump.
Many of us loved him for his coaching style long before we knew these things about him. But that style exemplified the baseline philosophy — share the ball, work hard to make your teammates’ opportunities better, and selfless sacrifice — that all of his teams displayed on the court. Maybe even for some of us it was Coach Smith’s example that helped to bring the light into our own lives. Like another UNC thinker, Frank Porter Graham, Coach Smith generated great heat in the lives of a great many people. Understandably, some did not like him, but if you did not respect him then you were/are a pitiable case.
Fred Hobson, born and raised in Yadkinville, NC, and who played Junior Varsity basketball at Carolina and later served as an English Professor at his Alma Mater, said, “To be quite frank, many of the people who idolized him in the state did not know his politics and would not have agreed with them if they had. So what everyone saw in him was not his politics. It was simply his leadership — that calm in the face of crisis.”
Continuing with the frankness, I’m personally very glad that I came to know the full measure of Coach Smith - because he showed us a path forward through darkness and did so with tact and by example. In the meantime, Coach Smith brought that same thoughtfulness to the game itself and to the relationship that he forged with each of his players over his 36 years on the sidelines. Yes, he thrilled us and taught us never to give up and that the only way was the right way, the human way, the kind and considerate way, but he also won the game far, far more than he lost.
He worked to turn the Front Porch of The University of North Carolina into a welcoming entryway for all people. Quite literally because of him the world had a focus other than Helms or KKK violence or Bathroom Bills when they looked to North Carolina and had to know that we all weren’t — clearly we couldn’t be — like that. He demonstrated that regression was contested in The Tar Heel State. If you don’t see this or are skeptical, read up - start with ‘A Coach’s Life’ then move on to the testimonials of his players, fellow coaches, folks that he worked and prayed with, and even most of all - the people that he bested. Happy Birthday Coach (1931-2015). Never, ever forgotten.
So, no one on either team could shoot well.
51 years ago today. 54-52 in 13 overtimes.
donbosco
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Missed this one. Here’s a story.
In #Bonlee #DeepChatham growing up it was pretty common to see a sub-16 year old out on the highway driving a tractor. But then my Elementary School (Grades 1 through 8 had student parking — think about THAT for a minute). The roads down that way were narrow with no shoulder in those days — just the ditch on either side. Drivers either poked along or dreamed of NASCAR fame. Throw in teen-age tractor pilots and rampaging chicken trucks and the highway was downright treacherous.
I was awarded my first speeding ticket at 16, topping a rise on Old 421 doing 80 mph only to meet John Law eyeball to eyeball. I totaled my car the next year - on an icy day in front of my high school just as school let out. There were four of my classmates in the car with me. No one was much hurt. Other students wrecked and rolled their cars and trucks regularly. Sometimes kids and young adults died.
Car culture was big, and souped up engines, mag wheels, and jacked up chasis were all over. Muscle cars were ubiquitous and LOUD was the sound of main street in Siler City and Sanford on Friday and Saturday night. Gas shortage be damned! CB radios eventually appeared — aiding the concerted effort to thwart the State Patrol and the Sheriff. Racing happened despite the admonitions and best efforts of long-time Driver’s Ed teacher (and legendary baseball coach) Ronald Scott.
But cars were needed in that neck of the woods - there was no public transportation whatsoever - no one thought about it. There were school buses — and they were mainly driven by high school students! Only little kids rode the bus anyway. Imagine the roads feeding into a country high school about 7:45 on a weekday morning filled as they were with hot rods — It’s a true wonder more didn’t die.
I don’t know what’s it is like these days on the roads around Bonlee, Goldston, Bennett, and Bear Creek. Last I saw it seemed that Big Trucks had taken over from the race cars. Maybe that means those kids are armored up and air-bagged sufficiently that fatalities are low. I doubt, however, that the roads are any wider in most of #DeepChatham nor are the temptations, necessities, and distances to drive reduced one whit.
#OTD (Feb. 28) in 1935 the NC General Assembly passed a law requiring a Driver’s License to operate “any rubber-tired vehicle propelled or drawn by any power other than muscular” on a public road. From the start the age was 16 to get that first license. Tractors were exempt. Testing began in ‘48. Driver’s Licensing Began
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For the past at least 20 years I have bought a dozen Dr. Seuss books for Toys for Tots come Xmas time.
Dr. Seuss (born March 2, 1904, Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.—died September 24, 1991, La Jolla, California) was an American writer and illustrator of immensely popular children’s books noted for their nonsense words, playful rhymes, and unusual creatures.
After graduating from Dartmouth College (B.A., 1925), Geisel did postgraduate studies at Lincoln College, Oxford, and at the Sorbonne. He subsequently began working for Life, Vanity Fair, and other publications as an illustrator and humorist. In addition, he found success in advertising, providing illustrations for a number of campaigns. Geisel was especially noted for his work on ads for Flit insect repellent. Some of his characters later appeared in his children’s works.
After illustrating a series of humor books, Geisel decided to write a children’s book, which was reportedly rejected by nearly 30 publishers. After his chance meeting with a friend who was an editor at Vanguard Press, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street was finally released in 1937. The work centers on a young boy who transforms his ordinary walk home from school into a fantastical story. Later, however, he describes only the facts of his walk to his father, who frowns on the boy’s imaginative nature. Geisel used the pen name Dr. Seuss, planning to publish novels under his surname; the Dr. was a tongue-in-cheek reference to his uncompleted doctorate degree. However, his first book for adults, The Seven Lady Godivas (1939), fared poorly, and thereafter he focused on children’s books, which he preferred. (In many profiles and articles, he is often quoted as having said, “Adults are obsolete children, and the hell with them.” In 1986 he published a humor book on aging “for readers of all ages,” You’re Only Old Once! A Book for Obsolete Children.)
After publishing several more children’s works, Geisel released Horton Hatches the Egg in 1940. With it, he introduced the features that would come to define his books: a unique brand of humor, playful use of words, and outlandish characters. It centers on an elephant who is duped into sitting on the egg of a bird who goes on vacation. Despite various hardships, Horton refuses to leave: “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful one hundred percent!” In the end, he is rewarded when the egg hatches, and a creature with bird wings and an elephant’s head emerges.
During World War II Geisel’s focus shifted to politics. In the early 1940s he was an editorial cartoonist at PM magazine in New York City. Although his political cartoons pointedly critiqued American isolationism and “America First” attitudes, some of them also contained xenophobic and sexist tropes and racist depictions of Asians (in particular, Japanese people), Arabs, and Africans. Geisel then served (1943–46) in the U.S. Army, where he was assigned to the documentary division. In 1945 he wrote Your Job in Germany, which was directed by Frank Capra; it was later remade as the Academy Award-winning Hitler Lives (1945), though Geisel was not credited. After his service ended, he continued to make films. With his first wife, Helen Palmer Geisel, he wrote the Oscar-winning documentary feature Design for Death (1947). His animated cartoon Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950) also won an Academy Award.
In 1947 Geisel returned to children’s books with McElligot’s Pool, about a boy who imagines a fantastical marine world while fishing. The work was especially noted for Geisel’s inventive creatures, which would come to populate his later stories. In addition, he continued to use his whimsical rhymes to convey important life lessons. In Horton Hears a Who! (1954), the loyal pachyderm returns to protect a tiny speck of a planet known as Whoville. A discussion about minority rights and the value of all individuals, the work features Horton repeating “a person’s a person, no matter how small.” The book’s message was inspired by Geisel’s visit to Japan in 1953, where the devastation of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima deeply affected him and caused him to retract some of his previous anti-Japanese views. He also published The Sneetches (1953), which tackles racism.
In 1957 Geisel published two of his most popular works: The Cat in the Hat and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. The former features a mischievous talking cat who entertains two bored children on a rainy day, while the latter introduces the Scrooge-like Grinch, who wants to ruin Christmas in Whoville but ultimately discovers that the holiday is more than just its material trappings. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was later adapted (1966) for television, and it became a holiday staple. It was also made into a feature film (2000), a Broadway musical (2006), and an animated movie (2018).
In 1958 Geisel founded Beginner Books, Inc., which in 1960 became a division of Random House. He subsequently wrote a number of books for beginning readers, notably One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (1960), Green Eggs and Ham (1960), Hop on Pop (1963), and Fox in Socks (1965). They—along with his other works—went far beyond the traditional, and often boring, primers and were valued for their contribution to the education of children. During this period, Geisel also wrote The Lorax (1971), in which he expressed concern for the environment. The cautionary tale centers on a businessman who destroys a forest of Truffula trees—despite the protest of the Lorax, who speaks up because “the trees have no tongues”—and, when left with a desolate landscape, laments the damage he has caused. Geisel’s later notable books include the inspirational Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (1990), which became a popular graduation gift to students.
In 1984 Geisel received a Pulitzer Prize “for his special contribution over nearly half a century to the education and enjoyment of America’s children and their parents.” The honor underscored the immense popularity of his works, which were perennial best sellers. According to various reports, by the early 21st century more than 600 million copies of Dr. Seuss books had been sold worldwide.
Dr. Seuss (born March 2, 1904, Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.—died September 24, 1991, La Jolla, California) was an American writer and illustrator of immensely popular children’s books noted for their nonsense words, playful rhymes, and unusual creatures.
After graduating from Dartmouth College (B.A., 1925), Geisel did postgraduate studies at Lincoln College, Oxford, and at the Sorbonne. He subsequently began working for Life, Vanity Fair, and other publications as an illustrator and humorist. In addition, he found success in advertising, providing illustrations for a number of campaigns. Geisel was especially noted for his work on ads for Flit insect repellent. Some of his characters later appeared in his children’s works.
After illustrating a series of humor books, Geisel decided to write a children’s book, which was reportedly rejected by nearly 30 publishers. After his chance meeting with a friend who was an editor at Vanguard Press, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street was finally released in 1937. The work centers on a young boy who transforms his ordinary walk home from school into a fantastical story. Later, however, he describes only the facts of his walk to his father, who frowns on the boy’s imaginative nature. Geisel used the pen name Dr. Seuss, planning to publish novels under his surname; the Dr. was a tongue-in-cheek reference to his uncompleted doctorate degree. However, his first book for adults, The Seven Lady Godivas (1939), fared poorly, and thereafter he focused on children’s books, which he preferred. (In many profiles and articles, he is often quoted as having said, “Adults are obsolete children, and the hell with them.” In 1986 he published a humor book on aging “for readers of all ages,” You’re Only Old Once! A Book for Obsolete Children.)
After publishing several more children’s works, Geisel released Horton Hatches the Egg in 1940. With it, he introduced the features that would come to define his books: a unique brand of humor, playful use of words, and outlandish characters. It centers on an elephant who is duped into sitting on the egg of a bird who goes on vacation. Despite various hardships, Horton refuses to leave: “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful one hundred percent!” In the end, he is rewarded when the egg hatches, and a creature with bird wings and an elephant’s head emerges.
During World War II Geisel’s focus shifted to politics. In the early 1940s he was an editorial cartoonist at PM magazine in New York City. Although his political cartoons pointedly critiqued American isolationism and “America First” attitudes, some of them also contained xenophobic and sexist tropes and racist depictions of Asians (in particular, Japanese people), Arabs, and Africans. Geisel then served (1943–46) in the U.S. Army, where he was assigned to the documentary division. In 1945 he wrote Your Job in Germany, which was directed by Frank Capra; it was later remade as the Academy Award-winning Hitler Lives (1945), though Geisel was not credited. After his service ended, he continued to make films. With his first wife, Helen Palmer Geisel, he wrote the Oscar-winning documentary feature Design for Death (1947). His animated cartoon Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950) also won an Academy Award.
In 1947 Geisel returned to children’s books with McElligot’s Pool, about a boy who imagines a fantastical marine world while fishing. The work was especially noted for Geisel’s inventive creatures, which would come to populate his later stories. In addition, he continued to use his whimsical rhymes to convey important life lessons. In Horton Hears a Who! (1954), the loyal pachyderm returns to protect a tiny speck of a planet known as Whoville. A discussion about minority rights and the value of all individuals, the work features Horton repeating “a person’s a person, no matter how small.” The book’s message was inspired by Geisel’s visit to Japan in 1953, where the devastation of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima deeply affected him and caused him to retract some of his previous anti-Japanese views. He also published The Sneetches (1953), which tackles racism.
In 1957 Geisel published two of his most popular works: The Cat in the Hat and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. The former features a mischievous talking cat who entertains two bored children on a rainy day, while the latter introduces the Scrooge-like Grinch, who wants to ruin Christmas in Whoville but ultimately discovers that the holiday is more than just its material trappings. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was later adapted (1966) for television, and it became a holiday staple. It was also made into a feature film (2000), a Broadway musical (2006), and an animated movie (2018).
In 1958 Geisel founded Beginner Books, Inc., which in 1960 became a division of Random House. He subsequently wrote a number of books for beginning readers, notably One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (1960), Green Eggs and Ham (1960), Hop on Pop (1963), and Fox in Socks (1965). They—along with his other works—went far beyond the traditional, and often boring, primers and were valued for their contribution to the education of children. During this period, Geisel also wrote The Lorax (1971), in which he expressed concern for the environment. The cautionary tale centers on a businessman who destroys a forest of Truffula trees—despite the protest of the Lorax, who speaks up because “the trees have no tongues”—and, when left with a desolate landscape, laments the damage he has caused. Geisel’s later notable books include the inspirational Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (1990), which became a popular graduation gift to students.
In 1984 Geisel received a Pulitzer Prize “for his special contribution over nearly half a century to the education and enjoyment of America’s children and their parents.” The honor underscored the immense popularity of his works, which were perennial best sellers. According to various reports, by the early 21st century more than 600 million copies of Dr. Seuss books had been sold worldwide.
