Growing up reading Dr. Seuss books like, well, just about everyone else, I imagined they were written by someone who grew up in a fantastical place, filled with oddly shaped trees and strangely-named animals. But, it turns out Dr. Seuss, born Theodor Geisel, actually grew up in the rather normal town of Springfield, Massachusetts.
A new biography by Brian Jay Jones explores how his New England upbringing and Dartmouth education shaped Geisel's work. The book is called Becoming Dr. Seuss: Theodor Geisel and the Making of an American Imagination.