The 2000 movie Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas, starring Jim Carrey (1962–), was a major hit with audiences. The grotesque green-skinned character was actually created more than forty years earlier, however, by the author and illustrator known as Dr. Seuss. His books, with their colorful characters and rhyming language, have entertained children all over the world for decades.

Dr. Seuss was born Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904–1991) in Springfield, Massachusetts. As a child, he made frequent trips to the zoo, where he got the inspiration for many of his animal creations. He had a flair for drawing and later contributed illustrations to his college's humor magazine. In the 1920s and 1930s, Geisel began working as a professional cartoonist and illustrator, mostly for advertising agencies.

Geisel's real ambition was to create his own children's books. In 1936, he published his first, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry...