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Dr. Seuss: American Icon (Hardcover)

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4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

He claimed that he used nonsense to "awaken the brain cells," and his work, whether the political cartoons that began his career, or the children's books for which he is most famous, provides ample evidence of his ability to keep readers on their toes. Timed to coincide with the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of "The U.S. Laureate of Nonsense," this abundantly documented critical study investigates not only Dr. Seuss' quirky art and inventive language but also how his inspired goofiness entered the mainstream of American culture. Nel eschews all but the most necessary details of Dr. Seuss' personal life, but, using numerous, specific examples of his writing and art, digs deeply into the work, including a particularly intriguing discussion of Dr. Seuss' pre- and post-World War II politics. With extensive documentation and a bibliography of nearly 100 pages, this isn't for the renowned doctor's casual fans. But even nonacademics will come away enlightened about the talented man who wanted to wake people up to events in the world and leave a moral legacy for children. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review

"Philip Nel's comprehensive biography will tell grown-ups more than they ever thought they wanted to know about Seuss." -- The Economist

"an incisive and indispensable guide to the work and legacy of the creative genius behind The Grinch". -- SirReadalot.org

"…the real value in this volume is the peek it offers at the author's lesser-known work." -- The Seattle Times
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 312 pages
  • Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group; First Edition edition (January 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0826414346
  • ISBN-13: 978-0826414342
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #86,945 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #21 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Books & Reading > History of Books
    #76 in  Books > Children's Books > Literature > Children's Literature Guides
    #97 in  Books > Children's Books > Early Reader Series > Dr. Seuss

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Philip Nel
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Customer Reviews

9 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Really Enjoyed It, September 21, 2004
By Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
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.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for every personal and Public Library, March 9, 2004
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.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Phlip Nel gives silly Seuss a serious treatment, July 25, 2004
Theodore Seuss Geisel (1904-1991), aka "Dr. Seuss," was one of the most influential writers and artists of the 20th century.

In 1959, Rudolf Flesch wrote, "A hundred years from now, children and their parents will still eagerly read the books of a fellow called Ted Geisel, popularly known as Dr. Seuss."

Flesch was too conservative in his prediction. A century, and more, from today, Dr. Seuss will still be read when many authors on today's bestseller lists will be forgotten.

Published on the centenary of Geisel's birth, Dr. Seuss: American Icon analyzes six key aspects of Seuss's career: poetry, politics, art, biography, marketing, and influence.

In six insightful chapters, Philip Nel, Assistant Professor of English at Kansas State University, discusses "U.S. Laureate of Nonsense," "Dr. Seuss vs. Adolf Hitler," "The Doc in the Smock," "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. S.," "The Disneyfication of Dr. Seuss," and "The Cat in the Hat for President."

Nel gives short shrift to Geisel's childhood and family background--and, indeed, to biography in general--preferring to focus on Seuss's writing and art, from his first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937) to his last book, Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990).

Dr. Seuss's breakthrough year was 1957, when he published the two books with which he is most often identified: The Cat in the Hat and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Other classic works in the Seussian canon are: Horton Hears a Who! ("A person's a person, no matter how small"), Yertle the Turtle (modeled on the rise of Adolf Hitler), Green Eggs and Ham (Seuss's bestselling book), The Sneeches (a criticism of anti-Semitism), The Lorax (a protest against corporate abuse of the environment), and The Butter Battle Book (a critique of Reagan's enthusiasm for the nuclear arms trace).

His favorite work, among the books he authored, was The Cat in the Hat, for it, more than any other, taught children to read.
While many of his books have a clear and powerful moral, Seuss had a horror of heavy-handed preaching. He sought to teach and ignite the imagination, but was a lifelong opponent of smug, self-righteous bourgeois moralism.

"Seuss was a contrarian," writes Nel, "who enjoyed challenging people to reconsider their assumptions. [He had a] rebellious imagination and a dispositional distaste for rules and regulations." His work was a "rational insanity" that exhibited "joyous anarchy" and a "lifelong thrill in misbehaving."

A better subtitle for Nel's work would have been American Icon and Iconoclast.

Nel tells of Seuss's early years as an advertising artist and as a agitprop cartoonist. The book, however, is not a biography; it is a serious study in the genres of literary and art criticism.

For readers who want more biographical information, Nel recommends Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel, by Judith Morgan and Neil Morgan (1995), which he describes as "the definitive biography and the single best secondary source on Seuss. Any discussion of Seuss's life and work must begin with this book."

Dr. Seuss: American Icon includes 103 pages of notes, index, and the most comprehensive annotated Seuss bibliography ever assembled. One learns a lot from this book; the author's lucid style makes it not only an enlightening work but a fun read.

Philip Nel is the author of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter Novels: A Reader's Guide (2001) and The Avant-Garde and American Postmodernity (2002).

Roy E. Perry of Nolensville, Tennessee, is an advertising copywriter at a Nashville publishing house.
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