"... into a black hole from which there is no escape, no brightness. And loud in my ears from every side I hear, 'failure, failure, failure...' I love you so much ... I am too old and enmeshed in everything you do and are, that I cannot conceive of life without you ... My going will leave quite a rumor but you can say I was overworked and overwrought. Your reputation with your friends and fans will not be harmed ... Sometimes think of the fun we had all thru the years ..."
That is the suicide note of Helen Palmer, the first wife of Theodore Geisel AKA Dr. Seuss. Here's her Wikipedia page. She was born in Brooklyn, he was born in Massachusetts, she went to Wellesley, he went to Dartmouth, and they both went to Oxford, where they met.
She later stated, "Ted's notebooks were always filled with these fabulous animals. So I set to work diverting him; here was a man who could draw such pictures; he should be earning a living doing that."...
For about a decade following World War II, Ted worked to feed a booming children's book market... [relying] heavily on the encouragement and editorial input of Helen. In fact, throughout much of his career, he relied on her support. After realising that her husband was having an affair, Helen committed suicide in 1967 with an overdose of barbiturates after a series of illnesses spanning 13 years. ...
About Helen's death, Ted's niece Peggy commented: "Whatever Helen did, she did it out of absolute love for Ted." Secretary Julie Olfe called Helen's death "her last and greatest gift to him." Eight months later, in June 1968, Ted married Audrey Dimond, with whom he had been having an affair before Helen's death.
That links to a 2000 article in the NYT:
Audrey Dimond was married with two children when she fell in love with Ted Geisel. Mr. Geisel, 18 years her senior, was also married. In the wake of their affair, Mr. Geisel's wife, Helen, committed suicide, causing, as Mrs. Geisel puts it, ''a rather large ripple in the community of La Jolla.''
Mrs. Dimond divorced her husband to marry Mr. Geisel, 64, and when she did, her daughters, 9 and 14, were sent away to school.
''They wouldn't have been happy with Ted, and Ted wouldn't have been happy with them. He's the man who said of children, 'You have 'em and I'll entertain 'em.' Ted's a hard man to break down, but this is who he was. He lived his whole life without children and he was very happy without children. I've never been very maternal. There were too many other things I wanted to do. My life with him was what I wanted my life to be.''
Did you know and remember this story? I didn't. Had I read it in the NYT back in 2000? I must have, but it was shocking news to me when I encountered it as I was poking around on Geisel's Wikipedia page this morning after blogging about the current to-do over the man.
Knowing what happened to her, it's hard not to imagine her answer to the question: Commit suicide!
And it's hard not to think of the super-greedy boy as Geisel. Some people thought the book was actually written by Geisel, and Snopes took the trouble to debunk a rumor which it states as: "Dr. Seuss once wrote a children's book since banned due to its references to suicide and violence."
The Snopes piece is long and interesting, going beyond getting the authorship straight and delving into why the book could be understood to have a violence problem:
Some of the prose in Do You Know What I’m Going to Do Next Saturday? does sound a little odd if read without the context provided by its accompanying photographs, a feature the creator of the “Banned Book” page capitalized upon. For instance, at one point the child narrator declares:
Did you ever beat more than one kid at a time?
Well, I’m going to beat five kids at a time.
And then I’m going to beat their fathers, too.
The photos show a boy playing tennis with kids and volleyball with men.
Likewise, the following lines are a little difficult to fathom when considered in isolation:
I’ll dump water on Sam.
I’ll make him take a walk.
I’ll make Sam walk about a hundred miles.
The photos show kids hiking and playing.
Even the innocuous can sound ominous when taken out of context:
I’ll run around and yell and yell.
Next Saturday I’ll yell my head off.
I’ll blow horns. I’ll blow and blow.
Next Saturday I’ll blow my head off.
No one is going to stop me next Saturday.
In the photo, the kid is playing a tuba, but you can see you don't want to hear your child say "Next Saturday I’ll blow my head off"!
You Know What I’m Going to Do Next Saturday? was never “banned,” and nothing about it was really the least bit unwholesome....
Yeah, well, actually it is. The whole point is that there are double meanings and the photo is always the good meaning, but you can still figure out the dangerous meaning. That's why it's funny. And once you know the author killed herself, aren't you ready to keep it out of the hands of your little darlings?
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65 comments:
It seems that many geniuses are 'complicated.'
And the doc was nothing if not a genius.
I did not know this story. He was a real bastard to his first wife. That suicide note shows a real genius for passive-aggressiveness. "I love you, you'll be so happy without me, feel free to lie to everyone about why I did it." And his second wife--very selfish. Perhaps her children were better off without her around.
It seems that many geniuses are 'complicated.'
Genius is seeing the world in a way that others cannot. That's also one definition of madness.
It's why I laugh when people talk about how the Chinese are going to genetically engineer a high IQ population and leave us in the dust: good luck with that. I would bet the secondary and tertiary effects of such a plan would be disastrous.
So he was a sinner.
They call it “fucking up” for a reason.
That’s a sin that nabs a lot of us.
Btw, if you search for images of Audrey, she looks as if she morphed into a Seuss character as she got older. Bad choice of plastic surgeon, it seems.
No one reading this knows why his first wife killed herself, nor how self-serving his second wife's comments about children might be. Nor should any of that preclude any family from enjoying Dr Seuss. My childhood was better for having Horton in it.
A Fish out of Water was my favorite preschool book. Didn't realize Mrs Dr Seuss wrote it.
I can understand why there was no “About the Author” blurb on the back fold of his children’s books....
Punters love it when the clay feet of genius and ambition give way.
So what happens to all those cat-in-the-hat hats you see everywhere? Will they fall out of fashion?
How many of us have been cheated on? And yet we deal with it and move on with our lives. Yes, it was a lousy thing for him to do, but blaming him for her suicide is utterly grotesque.
"after a series of illnesses spanning 13 years" — It might help to know what that refers to.
"after a series of illnesses spanning 13 years" — It might help to know what that refers to.
Yeah. I'd like to at least know the full story before I get all judgy. Also, how the heck did that suicide note become public?
When you’re rich and famous, women will come on to you. Not all of them, but enough of them. Althouse still hates Donald Trump for stating this, albeit in a very crude manner. Hard to respect Geisel for giving in.
Shit happens.
Sent the girls away...ok I hate this guy now.
Good thing I was too old for his books.
Big Mike scores a solid point. Remember the professional athletes boasting 10,000 or more conquests?
I do remember that.
Unlike the children, and child-like adults of today, I don't feel the need for artists, businessmen, scientists and others to be saints in their personal lives for me to enjoy or respect their art or business or work.
I don't need to admire the man to admire the work.
America would be a healthier place if the population adopted that attitude.
Ken B said...nor how self-serving his second wife's comments about children might be.
Assuming I am included in this part of your comment, I will say that we have more to go on than her words. I am coupling her comments with her actions.
The facts are irrelevant to the body of work he produced and yet.....We would like the creator of lovable characters beloved by lovable children to be in some way lovable. Guess not.....The actors who played the Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy were affected by the adulation that kids gave them. They made an effort to live up to that adulation instead of using it as an opening to hit on the kid's mothers. That's the way it should be.
I am surprised that Althouse hasn't referred to the 1960 profile of Giesel in the New Yorker. It has quite a bit about his marriage as of 1960.
I tend to think that other people's marriages are too complicated to be understood by third parties. One of my parents' rules for getting along in life: leave other peoples' marriages alone. Don't give advice. Don't make judgments.
The profile is available online.
"It's why I laugh when people talk about how the Chinese are going to genetically engineer a high IQ population and leave us in the dust: good luck with that. I would bet the secondary and tertiary effects of such a plan would be disastrous."
If you believe the Science® they won't have to. They're already smarter than everyone else except Ashkenazi Jews...
Suck it up Buttercup. He’s the loser not you.
Another side to the story, Dr. Seuss' stepdaughter seeks to set record straight. It isn't what you may think. But who knows, it isn't like there is only one reality.
Dr. Seuss porn.
Dr. Seuss stepdaughter seeks to set record straight about Theodor Geisel, love of children
“My mother died one month ago tomorrow and it has been devastating for me, the slant toward her in the media,” Dimond told The Republican on Friday. “I felt my family had been disfigured and my past rewritten -- my happy past.”
Dimond recounted how her mother called her after speaking to The New York Times in 2000 and regretted the comments she had made.
“I can’t explain why mom said some of the things she said -- and I can’t explain why she said those things about the family,” Dimond said. “It’s simply not true. I was not sent away. I had a very strong family life with mom and Ted. I can never say enough good things about Ted. He was loving, kind, fun and wonderful. At no time was this a man who would send away a 9-year-old”...
“Ted Geisel should never be seen as a cold, self-absorbed selfish man," Dimond said. "I adored Ted. He was the very center of my life. I knew him since the age of 2 and he became my step-pop when I was 9.”
She recalled her time with Geisel as being full of peace and serenity.
“He worked in the house and I was always with him," Dimond said. "There was no door to his studio, it opened to the house. He would make you little things, draw you little pictures and drop them on you as he walked past you because I was always on the floor reading. He would make me montages and collages.”
“When I look at my years with Ted, there was a sensation of peace... it was heaven. My mom created a beautiful household for us -- and Ted was the center of my life,” Dimond recalled. “And my pop was a wonderful pop. There was never any estrangement.”
@chuck: Thanks for the above posting. The stepdaughter experienced Dr. Seuss as a kind and considerate man. He was a good man according to her testimony....I don't know why, but I am comforted by learning this.
Just a note here-- I never liked Dr. Seuss. His books were everywhere though, when I was growing up.
At least now we know where all those White Supremacists (NPR is hyperventilating right now) became indoctrinated.
Narr
I blame children's librarians
Tim Leary and his first wife lived in a kind of boozy, promiscuous academic community. Maybe not car key exchanges, but pretty close. Maybe no drugs beyond alcohol; early days. So his affair with the neighbour lady may have seemed par for the course, but it was tough on his wife. She no doubt had something like manic depression, and she killed herself. Leary reports that her suicide affected him, including his sexual performance, for years. It seems a bit different if a man can actually say: my wife has committed suicide; good, now I can marry girlfriend.
We've seen this before. Black hole? Black whore h/t NAACP. Dr. Seuss was a clear and progressive diversitist. He probably sacrificed, cannibalized babies, too. #HateLovesAbortion
Don't marry literary guys named Ted,
You will make yourselves dead.
People of White.
I also didn't much like Seuss growing up. I think only Green Eggs and Ham made any sort of impact on me, and only in the sense that I remember it today whereas I don't remember anything else from all the others.
which generation grew up with Seuss books?
when did dumbing down of American brains start?
cause or correlation!!??
is there hope for the new generation??
Ellsworth Toohey appreciated being called Humanitarian (he saw it as evidence of successful con)
Yertle the Turtle is a great story, as is the Sneetches.
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins is sadly underrated.
Dr. Seuss always reminded me of Dylan - contort or ignore the meaning of a word, so long as it rhymes. Both strike me as kind of lazy, although at least Dylan used actual words.
Big Mike said...When you’re rich and famous, women will come on to you. Not all of them, but enough of them. Althouse still hates Donald Trump for stating this, albeit in a very crude manner. Hard to respect Geisel for giving in.
Some women don't like that little truth exposed.
The only lasting Suess influence on me is "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" which I still adore. And I like that as much for Boris Karloff and Thurl Ravenscroft as for the visuals.
Geisel and his early books taught more kids to read than has been done by the entire membership of the Los Angeles Teachers Union in decades. So there is that.
He also taught people how to kill flies and mosquitos--and he worked for dreaded Big Oil in the 1930s. He was an advertising guy and created the "Quick Henry The Flit" advertising campaign for a subsidiary of what's now Exxon.
You need to separate the person and the person's foibles from his (or her) body of work.
Today's cancel culture wokesters seeking to eradicate the memory of Abraham Lincoln or George Washington (and the list can go on) for alleged sins or violations of today's mores can not understand that. As Mister T said, "I pity the fool(s)", They will get cancelled in turn for equally unjust reasons.
The only lasting Suess influence on me is "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" which I still adore. And I like that as much for Boris Karloff and Thurl Ravenscroft as for the visuals.
And reportedly Seuss thought the visuals were way too much Jones and used Freling for his other specials. (Walt Kelly thought the same about the "Pogo" special).
We have the testimony of the injured party, i.e. the stepdaughter, that she was not injured by her mother or stepfather. Why not take her word for it and release Dr. Seuss from what the article above the jump implies. He just wasn't a bad guy...From wiki, I understand that he was of German descent. He said some harsh things about Germans during the war. It's instructive to note that, so far as I know, he hasn't gotten in trouble for those comments.....You can criticize Germans for being Nazis, but it's racist to draw harsh caricatures of Japanese who were certainly no slouches when it came to committing war crimes.....Dr. Seusss and Eloise are the only picture books I can remember from childhood. He did something right....I can't imagine anybody hating Asians based on the drawings in his children's books. I can see where people could hate Japanese based on his wartime drawings, but that was the point of them.....As a Sad Sack ex- serviceman, I resent his drawings of Pvt. Snafu and believe that they should be retired from view. My service to the country should not be mocked by such offensive cartoons. I urge all ex-servicemen to burn his books.
What perfectly horrid people. Even Helen. I love the Seuss books though. Always will.
(I've been perfectly horrid myself.)
Secretary Julie Olfe called Helen's death "her last and greatest gift to him."
Okay, Julie, where do we start with this one....
I think much less of the man for what he did to his first wife. What a son of a bitch.
When you’re rich and famous, women will come on to you. Not all of them, but enough of them.
I’ve found they have a tendency to do that even absent extreme wealth and notoriety.
My grandkids just came home from kindergarten wearing cardboard cutout Cat in the Hat crowns!
Is somebody sending a message?
cardboard cutout Cat in the Hat crowns
They may be pussyhats. Check the label before judging.
That said, puss in boots. Classic.
Blogger tommyesq said...
Dr. Seuss always reminded me of Dylan - contort or ignore the meaning of a word, so long as it rhymes. Both strike me as kind of lazy, although at least Dylan used actual words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KToLnK7GSFA
On one hand: take all the sinners out of the church, and the church will be empty. Pulpit included.
On the other: I have no idea how I would deal with the suicide of someone who loved me.
On the third hand: if divine grace means anything, it includes absolution even for this.
Human forgiveness is demonstrably not as powerful.
Call me a contrarian, but I was never a real fan of Dr. Seuss. IMHO his books are too long. I felt they could be half the length of the typical Seuss tome and still be more than long enough. Just was never a fan.
Deanna, you're a contrarian!
Narr
MeToo
I discovered that Dr. Suess around 3rd grade. I remember my mother solemnly telling me....."Those are children's books."
Whodathunkit. Cat in the hat had skeletons in the closet. Dr. can't keep his pecker in his pants, wife goes off the deep end. Mistress tosses husband and kids. More dysfunctional relationships than "Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolfe?"
So are the books "Literary Fiction" or "Popular Fiction?" Do the Althausians who favored the books in their youth have "increased attributional complexity and accuracy in predicting social attitudes" or "increased egocentric bias?"
I do not like your leftist ways,
I do not like your mental haze.
I do not like your son on blow,
I do not like you Mr. Joe
You MUST expand on that, Iman.
It could be the book that pulls Gen Alpha from the edge of the Abyss.
And once you know the author killed herself, aren't you ready to keep it out of the hands of your little darlings?
No, but I may keep them away from retired academics with blogs... could lead them into very wayward cruelly neutral attitudes.
Do you like me with a Chink?
Do you like my brinksmanship?
Do you like me sniffing hair?
Do you like me? Do you dare?
I do not like your leftist ways,
I do not like your mental haze.
I do not like your son on blow,
I do not like you Mr. Joe
Do you like me burning books?
Do you like my crosseyed looks?
Do you like my FBI?
Do you like their filthy lie?
Do you like my Dr. Jill?
Red or blue, just take the Pill.
Do you like Trump's Covid jab?
I tried to keep it in the lab.
lol... very nice, Quaestor!
Trust the art, not the artist.
Tim M
My point is that the second wife has a motive to say he didn’t like kids even if he did, or to exaggerate. You seem aware of that, but lots of people just accept her statement. No one here knows the truth, skepticism is due.
One of my absolute favorite memories was reading “Fox in Socks” to my oldest son at bedtime and the both of us laughing hysterically at the tweedle beetle puddle battle rhymes ...
This is the legacy of creative people. Their personal life is completely irrelevant to the impact of what they create.
Speculating about people’s personal lives is one-half step removed from gossip, at best, and that’s being charitable.
"after a series of illnesses spanning 13 years" — It might help to know what that refers to.
Does it take a mind reader to know they mean psychiatric illness?
My grandfather, a short story writer in his younger day and a literary man to the end, was not a fan. He didn't think that much of Shel Silverstein, either--they had both failed his growing up test (going commie is fine when you're 18, but you must grow out of it one day--he never gave me shit about my left politics since I was still a kid). Still, my dad read us a few of Seuss' best: my brother and I loved Yertle and the accompanying story of the vain bird and the clever worm. My kids and I always enjoyed the Sleep Book best, and that's about the only one I enjoy reading to my youngest.
Anyway, it's not surprising that in other respects Geisel remained a man-child. He's so good at imagining the child's point of view, so naturally empathetic with the child's self-centered perspective.
Reading news articles about public figures and then assuming we “know” anything at all about them as real people, the way their friends and family know them, is a form of conceit.
I would say “you know nothing about them” but it’s worse than that, you know selected isolated things about them — chosen purposefully to create some narrative, which you also don’t know, nor do you know the goal behind it — but are under the illusion you know them.
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