Dr. Seuss’ editor bet him $50 he couldn’t write a book using 50 words or less. Dr. Seuss succeeded, and Green Eggs and Ham became one of his best-selling books.
Only 50 words are used in Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham. The use of only 50 words was due to a bet Bennett Cerf, Dr. Seuss’ editor and co-founder of Random House, made in 1960 with the author that Dr. Seuss could not write a book using 50 words or less. The bet was $50 (the equivalent of $382 as of 2011). Dr. Seuss succeeded, and Green Eggs and Ham became one of his best-selling books. In a survey conducted by the School Library Journal in 2012, Green Eggs and Ham was listed among the “Top 100 Picture Books.”
Read more about Dr. Seuss:
Dr. Seuss’ real name was Theodore Geisel. Seuss was his mother’s maiden name and his middle name.
In college, he used other aliases: Dr. Theophrastus Seuss, Theo LeSieg and Rosetta Stone.
In addition to writing children’s books, Geisel also wrote political cartoons between 1941 and 1943.
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