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S'està carregant… Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel (1995)de Judith Morgan, Neil Morgan
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Apunta't a LibraryThing per saber si aquest llibre et pot agradar. No hi ha cap discussió a Converses sobre aquesta obra. I really enjoyed this book. It defiantly gave a different look on Ted Geisel. I am not so sure how I feel about his second wife Audrey. After reading how they got together and then doing more research on her I was a little upset about her not keeping her mouth shut about certain things that were better behind closed doors. Otherwise I think Ted Geisel is still a genius and still one of my idols. He truly was an amazing man. As with many people who lived across the span of the 20th century, what is nearly as interesting as the biographical aspects of Ted's life are the glimpses into the society in which he grew up and lived. As a descendent of German immigrants, we see how racism and bullying permeated American society during the World Wars and impacted Ted's personality. The rise and fall of prohibition is also well-documented here, through the impact it held for Ted's father and grandfather, who worked as brewers. Even the advent of various technologies, from typewriter to electric typewriter to computer, occurred during Ted's lifetime as held sway over his works. The two Morgans do an excellent job of demonstrating not only the development of Ted as artist and writer but also just how much changed in America and around the world over the course of Ted's lifetime. Please read the rest of my review here: http://thevegbrarian.blogspot.ca/2013/08/dr-seuss-mr-geisel-book-review.html A thorough biography of Dr. Seuss by a couple that were neighbors of his in La Jolla. Although the subject is treated kindly and with obvious affection, the authors avoid hagiography. It was, however, very disconcerting when they kept certain important facts secret until springing a "surprise" in a later discussion. This is a technique that is often used in fiction, but really isn't appropriate, at least in the way it was one here, in biography. One of the best things about this book was the way it got us into the creative world of Dr. Seuss and the publishers he worked with, letting us glimpse how these books that are so familiar actually came together. Sense ressenyes | afegeix-hi una ressenya
Referències a aquesta obra en fonts externes. Wikipedia en anglès (15)This captivating biography of the bestselling children's author in history reveals at last the man who had a unique influence on four generations of Americans who championed children's rights before that phrase was familiar, and who revolutionized the way children learn to read. The very name Dr. Seuss inevitably provokes a smile and some recollection of a beloved character - Horton, perhaps, or Thidwick or the Cat in the Hat. Yet during his lifetime their creator was an enigma. In his years at Dartmouth, Oxford, New York, and Hollywood, mingling with the famous and notorious, he remained reclusive and plagued by self-doubts, but never lost his love of childish playfulness.
Was Ted Geisel really a genius, as his publisher Bennett Cerf believed, or, as he himself always insisted, just lucky? In forty-seven books of nonsensical charm, from And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street in 1937 to Oh, the Places You'll Go! in 1990, his recurring theme was that children had an inalienable right to mischief, love, and hope. But many librarians and teachers considered him a subversive influence when his revolutionary Cat in the Hat signaled the demise of dreary Dick-and-Jane primers. Ted Geisel was a dreamer who saw the world "through the wrong end of a telescope." In his eighty-seven years, he met seven U.S. presidents, but was more proud of the fact that he had seen Halley's Comet twice. An obsessively private man, he rarely revealed anything of his personal and professional agonies - or of the bawdy Seussian verses he wrote for friends.
Judith and Neil Morgan knew Ted Geisel in the latter half of his life, and here they merge their firsthand insights with scholarly research, drawing material from hundreds of letters and interviews, as well as from their subject's notes for an unpublished autobiography. They had full access to Geisel's voluminous papers, illuminating his relationship with both of his wives and providing instructive glimpses of his creative processes. The result is a frank and felicitous biography as unique as its subject. No s'han trobat descripcions de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — S'està carregant… GèneresClassificació Decimal de Dewey (DDC)813.52Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1900-1944LCC (Clas. Bibl. Congrés EUA)ValoracióMitjana:
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I'll admit, I wasn't too sure about this book early on, as I found myself thinking that it was fine and all, but Geisel's life simply wasn't anywhere near as interesting as his work. Despite a surprisingly dramatic development or two, that is very much true, but I found myself growing fond of the biography after a while, anyway. Possibly just because it is liberally peppered with quotes and jokes and comments from the man himself, and, gosh, he really was exactly as offbeat and witty and delightful as you would expect. And the account of his death, and the tributes paid to him afterward, actually choked me up a little bit. Also, it's interesting as a portrait of a life that spanned most of the 20th century; the earlier chapters do perhaps provide a lens through which to view some history that is already fading from living memory.
(By the way, I kind of don't want to, but I guess I really need to address this or it's something of an elephant -- sadly, not Horton -- in the room. So: no, the reason I read this now isn't as some sort of protest against the recent-ish decision of Seuss' publishers to stop printing a few of his works because they contain racially stereotyped images that I'm sure raised no eyebrows among white people at the time, but that the publishers obviously feel aren't something they want to put in front of 21st century children. The timing was purely coincidence. And while I can't say what Mr. Geisel would have thought about the whole thing, having read the bio I can be pretty sure that the people who are most vocally offended by that aren't the sort of folks he would approve of. And that's all I have to say about that.) ( )