 The College Life of Seuss!  |
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Ted Geisel began his college career in September 1921. Dartmouth was interested in having students attend the college that were not necessarily from wealthy homes. Geisel was not from money and his tuition was paid for by an inheritance from his grandfather (Ford, 2003). Geisel decided to major in English, which was inspired by his high school English teacher Red Smith. Right off the bat, Geisel became a part of Dartmouth’s newspaper as well as their humor magazine, Jack-O-Lantern, where he drew cartoons. This gave him the chance to both draw and write (Ford, 2003). Ted spent most of his first year of college working in the office for Jack-O-Lantern. While the opportunity to make sketches for the magazine made him happy, his grades suffered in the process. In his second year, he joined a fraternity but was not very interested in their activities. He then became a part of the magazine’s art staff and was known around campus for his drawings. In his junior year, his grades began to improve and by the end of the year he became the editor-in-chief at the Jack-O-Lantern, the goal he had when he began working at the magazine (Ford, 2003).  Cover of the Jack-O-Lantern Magazine |
For the first half of his senior year, his grades continually improved, his social life was more interactive, and because he took several English classes, he was interested in his grades. Unfortunately, Geisel ran into trouble during the second half of his final year. During this time, prohibition was still in progress. He was drinking gin with his friends when the police appeared and raided their party. Because of this, Ted was unable to continue working as the editor-in-chief for the magazine (Ford, 2003). The thought of not being able to work with the magazine upset Ted, so he began submitting his drawings under different names, including L. Burbank, D.G. Rosetti, and Seuss. This is how his famous pseudonym began. Looking back at his drawings, Geisel said, “You have to look at these things in the perspective of fifty years ago. These things may have been considered funny then, I hope- but today I sort of wonder” (See, 1974). He finished at Dartmouth with a “C” average, and his fraternity brothers voted him “least likely to succeed” (Ford, 2003). After college, Ted decided to apply for a grant that would pay for him to study at Oxford University in England. Hearing this news, Ted Sr. became very excited that he told both his friends and the editor at Springfield’s local newspaper that his son was attending school in Oxford. The news was put in the paper the next day. In the end, Ted did not receive the grant and to save face, Ted Sr. paid for him to go to Oxford anyway (Krull, 2004).
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When he began taking classes at Oxford, Ted was interested in becoming an English professor. While these were great aspirations, it was soon realized that his literature classes were uninteresting to him. Because of his German background, Geisel felt out of place and had an overwhelming feeling of boredom. His class notebooks turned into sketchpads (Ford, 2003). Much of Geisel’s time was spent sketching while at Oxford. This is how he met his future wife, Helen Palmer. Palmer admired his drawings and believed him to be crazy for pursuing a career as a professor when he was so obviously meant to be an artist. From this point forward, Geisel and Palmer spent much of their time together. Ted finally decided that Oxford was not for him, and taking the advice from one of his professors, he toured Europe (Ford, 2003). Helen stayed at Oxford during this time to continue her career. Before Geisel left for his travels, he and Helen were engaged. While in Paris, he decided to register at the Sorbonne, a university there. The assignment given to him would have taken two years to complete, so he decided against continuing (Ford, 2003). After his European tour, Ted Geisel made his way back to The United States to see Helen, who had since then graduated and moved to New York (Ford, 2003).
 Sorbonne University in Paris Website by Jordan Miller |
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