Dr. Seuss: American Icon

by Philip Nel

Book Overview

Published in time for the centenary of Seuss's birth in March 2004, Dr. Seuss: American Icon, celebrates one of the most influential authors and artists of the 20th century: Theodor Seuss Geisel, best known as 'Dr. Seuss'. Dr Seuss's ascendance from children's author to American icon confirms that his cultural significance rests not just with the beginning reader, but with the scholar, the artist, and the poet.

Seuss's Beginner Books(starting...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0826417086
• ISBN13: 9780826417084
• Release Date: December 2003
• Publisher: Continnuum-3PL
• Length: 301 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Academia At It's Best

When I recieved this book as a gift for Christmas my first impression went along these line: "Oh great some professor who probably wrote alot of mumbo-jumbo that I don't want to know about Dr. Suess and I know it won't be an enjoyable read." Thanks goodness I read it nonetheless. To my pleasure, Nel hardly writes in the airy academia style with which I expected him to. In fact, he's writes so far from it, with a smart and precise style, I am tempted to revise how I feel about professor-writers. However, in accordance with his academia roots, Nel has a 100 page annotated bibliogarphy that goes along with his work, a nice shrine to prove his homework was well done. As far the actual book goes it is an excellent piece work. "Dr. Seuss: American Icon" looks at the man behind Dr. Suess not as a straight-forward biography, but rather it focuses on different areas of Dr. Suess (i.e. poet, poetry of, artist, artistic style, adult, activist, etc.) and interjects those discussions with biogrphical anecdotes. A very effective attention keeping method. If you're interested in learning more about the work and the man behind the work of Dr. Suess, this is the book that speaks to both and even more. Highly recommended!

And to think that I read it on the tram!

Trams (or any public transport) are not usually the best place to read and absorb scholarly texts. But this one has accompanied me on my daily commute, and I have been absorbed in it. It is well written and comprehensive, and tells the tale of a modern author, with plenty of "Fancy that" and "Well, well" moments. Highly recommended for stationary reading, too.

A memorably excellent survey of Dr. Seuss' many achievements

Theodor Seuss Giesel was best known as 'Dr. Seuss', one of the most influential and enduringly popular children's authors of the 20th century. Giesel created not only his famous imaginative picturebooks, but a unique art and poetry, and even a place for himself in politics. Philip Nel argues that these added activities make Dr. Seuss one of the most influential people in America - certainly the most influential poet - and Dr. Seuss: American Icon provides the reader an memorably excellent survey of Dr. Seuss' many achievements.

Really Enjoyed It

I don't care much for Dr. Seuss but after reading Philip Nel's book I changed my mind--that's a good testimonial to the power of Rel's writing and thinking. Rel plays Dr. Seuss the ultimate compliment of treating him as a serious poet as well as one of the 20th century's most interesting visual artists, and after reading his book I decided that a trip to the Mandeville Collections of the library at University of California in San Diego was in order, so I could visit some of the incredible Seuss/Geisel holdings they have there. There's almost too much to take in, for, like William Butler Yeats, Seuss led a career that constantly shifted and metamoprhized itself to meet new historical and political cirsumstances, so he seems to have been both a leftist and a conservative at different junctures of his career, both in politics and in art. As Nel shows us, he was once a cartoonist for the fabled PM magazine and, like Andy Warhol, he served his time slaving in the ad business too. All was in the service of amusing and broadening the minds of US children. Nel doesn't hesitate to administer a sound spanking to the Seuss industry that, since his death, has seen fit to license all kinds of awful products including the recent CAT IN THE HAT film with Mike Myers. Oh, what a cat-astrophe! The book is great and I can especially recommend the work of the picture editor who has given us a bounty of good illustrations.

Essential for every personal and Public Library

If people become the books they read and if "the child is father to the man," then Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) is the most influential author, poet, and artist of modern times. For me, a daddy to a large family who learned to read with Dr. Seuss and who has memorized too many of the books via repeated readings to young children, Prof. Nel's brilliant 'American Icon' is a long awaited treat. At last a serious treatment of this remarkable genius that is both an engaging read and filled with remarkable insights! I especially enjoyed (and learned more than I care to admit from) Prof. Nel's discussions of the Disneyfication of Seuss - which Nel links to failings in American copyright law, "the other sides of Dr. Seuss" - all of which sides were new to me, and the political genesis of his secular morality in the WWII cartoon work he did at PM magazine. The chapters on Geisel's poetry and artwork and the link Nel makes between Seuss and the historical avant guarde alone make this book a "must buy" for parents and serious readers, not to mention public libraries. Readers of Nel's other books will find the same engaging writing style that makes the book a fun read while imparting a mountain of information and important ideas. This is simply the best and most comprehensive book yet written on the work of Seuss Geisel and what will certainly be the standard for many years to come. Thank you, Prof. Nel, wherever you are, from a reader who grew up with the good doctor and who is growing up with him again years later. Your book, written from your encyclopeadic knowledge of children's literature and the media of this genre - from scanning verse to cubist painting! - explains the power, limits, and popularity of the Seuss phenomenon.