Helen Palmer (author)
American writer
Helen Palmer
Helen Marion Palmer
(1898-09-16)September 16, 1898
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
October 23, 1967(1967-10-23) (aged 69)
La Jolla, California, U.S.
Helen Geisel
Children's book author, Editor, Screenwriter,[further explanation needed][citation needed]
I Was Kissed by a Seal at the Zoo
Do You Know What I'm Going to Do Next Saturday?
Why I Built the Boogle House
Theodor Seuss Geisel
Helen Marion Palmer Geisel (September 16, 1898 – October 23, 1967), known professionally as Helen Palmer, was an American children's author, editor, and philanthropist. She was also the Founder and Vice President of Beginner Books, and was married to fellow author Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, from 1927 until her death.
Her best-known books include Do You Know What I'm Going to Do Next Saturday?, I Was Kissed by a Seal at the Zoo, Why I Built the Boogle House, and A Fish Out Of Water.
1.1 Early life and college
1.2 Post-war success
1.3 Illness and suicide
Life[edit]
Early life and college[edit]
Helen Palmer was born in New York City in 1898 and spent her childhood in Bedford–Stuyvesant, a prosperous Brooklyn neighborhood. As a child, she contracted polio, but recovered from it almost completely. Her father, George Howard Palmer, an ophthalmologist, died when she was 11.
She graduated from Wellesley College with honors in 1920.[1] She then spent three years teaching English at Girls High School in Brooklyn before moving with her mother to England to attend Oxford University.[2]
She met her future husband, Ted Geisel, in class at Oxford.[3][4] She had a profound influence on his life, starting with her suggestion that he should be an artist rather than an English professor.[5] She later stated, "Ted's notebooks were always filled with these fabulous animals. So I set to work diverting him; here was a man who could draw such pictures; he should be earning a living doing that."[5] They married in 1927. She could not have children because of medical conditions.[6]
Post-war success[edit]
Following World War II, she worked in Hollywood with her husband. The two shared the writing credit on Design for Death, which won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[7][8]
For the next decade, she was the primary source of encouragement for and was an editor of her husband's prolific books for children.[3] That support continued a few years more even as her health became an issue.[4]
Illness and suicide[edit]
Palmer died by suicide in 1967 with an overdose of barbiturates[9] after a series of illnesses spanning 13 years. She wrote in her suicide note:
Dear Ted, What has happened to us? I don't know. I feel myself in a spiral, going down down down, into a black hole from which there is no escape, no brightness. And loud in my ears from every side I hear, 'failure, failure, failure...' I love you so much ... I am too old and enmeshed in everything you do and are, that I cannot conceive of life without you ... My going will leave quite a rumor but you can say I was overworked and overwrought. Your reputation with your friends and fans will not be harmed ... Sometimes think of the fun we had all thru the years ...[10]
Eight months later, in June 1968, her widower married the woman with whom he reportedly had been having an affair.[11]
Nonetheless, her widower later described how he felt at her death: "I didn't know whether to kill myself, burn the house down, or just go away and get lost."[10] Her widower's niece Peggy commented: "Whatever Helen did, she did it out of absolute love for Ted." Secretary Julie Olfe called Palmer's death "her last and greatest gift to him."[10]
Helen Palmer's best-known book is Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday?, published in 1963. This book combined Palmer's stories with photographs by Lynn Fayman, as did two other books: I Was Kissed by a Seal at the Zoo (1962) and Why I Built the Boogle House (1964). The photographs in I Was Kissed by a Seal at the Zoo were taken at the San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, and featured children from the Francis Parker School in San Diego interacting with the zoo's animals and staff.
She also expanded the Dr. Seuss short story "Gustav the Goldfish" into the book A Fish Out Of Water, which was illustrated by P. D. Eastman.[12]
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^ Morgan (1995), p. 57
^ a b Hulbert, Ann (23 April 1995). "The Man Who Invented the Cat in the Hat". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
^ a b Smith, Dinitia (13 February 1997). "The Creatures of a Purist Go Commercial". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
^ a b Eric Pace (September 26, 1991). "Dr. Seuss, Modern Mother Goose, Dies at 87". The New York Times. New York City. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
^ Nel, Philip (2004). Dr. Seuss: American Icon. Continuum Publishing. ISBN 0-8264-1434-6.
^ Morgan (1995), p. 120-121
^ Manning, Martin J. (2004). Historical Dictionary of American Propaganda. Greenwood Press. p. 116. ISBN 9780313296055.
^ Wadler, Joyce (November 29, 2000). "PUBLIC LIVES; Mrs. Seuss Hears a Who, and Tells About It". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
^ a b c Morgan, Judith; Morgan, Neil (22 August 1996). Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel: A Biography. pp. 195–198. ISBN 978-0306807367.
^ Zielinski, Stan. "A Story Of Two Fish: Dr. Seuss Out Of Water". Retrieved 21 October 2013.
Morgan, Judith; Morgan, Neil (1995). Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel. Random House. ISBN 0-679-41686-2.
Helen Marion Palmer at Library of Congress Authorities, with 14 catalog records
Horton the Elephant
Bartholomew Cubbins
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street3
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
The King's Stilts
The Seven Lady Godivas
Horton Hatches the Egg
McElligot's Pool3
Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose
Bartholomew and the Oobleck
If I Ran the Zoo3
Scrambled Eggs Super!3
On Beyond Zebra!3
Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories
The Sneetches and Other Stories
Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book
Dr. Seuss's ABC
I Wish That I Had Duck Feet 1
Come over to My House 1
The Foot Book
I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and Other Stories
My Book about ME
Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?: Dr. Seuss's Book of Wonderful Noises!
Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!
The Shape of Me and Other Stuff
There's a Wocket in My Pocket
Great Day for Up!
Wacky Wednesday 1
The Cat's Quizzer3
I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!
Oh Say Can You Say?
Hunches in Bunches
The Butter Battle Book
You're Only Old Once!
I Am Not Going to Get Up Today!
Daisy-Head Mayzie 2
My Many Colored Days 2
Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! 2
The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories 2
Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories 2
What Pet Should I Get? 2
Horse Museum 2
The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show (1956–1957)
The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss (1996–1998)
Gerald McBoing-Boing (2005–2007)
The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! (2010–2018)
Green Eggs and Ham (2019–present)
Television specials
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
Horton Hears a Who! (1970)
The Cat in the Hat (1971)
The Lorax (1972)
Dr. Seuss on the Loose (1973)
The Hoober-Bloob Highway (1975)
Halloween Is Grinch Night (1977)
Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You? (1980)
The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (1982)
The Butter Battle Book (1989)
Daisy-Head Mayzie (1995)
Horton Hatches the Egg (short; 1942)
Gerald McBoing-Boing (short; 1950)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Dr. Seuss' Fix-Up the Mix-Up Puzzler (1984)
Dr. Seuss: Green Eggs and Ham (2003)
Dr. Seuss: How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (2007)
Welcome (Russian short film)
Seussical (musical)
"You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" (song)
The Cat in the Hat (play)
The Lorax (musical)
Dr. Seuss' The Grinch Musical Live! (musical)
Dr. Seuss's ABC (musical)
Green Eggs and Ham (musical)
The Cat in the Hat (musical)
Private Snafu
The Pocket Book of Boners
Your Job in Germany
Our Job in Japan
Design for Death
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.
Hejji
Society of Red Tape Cutters
Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum
Dr. Seuss Enters., L.P. v. Penguin Books USA, Inc.
Dr. Seuss Goes to War
The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss National Memorial
Geisel Award
Political messages of Dr. Seuss
1 as "Theo. LeSieg". 2 Posthumous. 3 withdrawn from publication
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1967 suicides
American children's writers
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Drug-related suicides in California
Barbiturates-related deaths
Writers from Amherst, Massachusetts
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American women children's writers
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Wikipedia articles needing clarification from March 2021
This page was last edited on 6 October 2021, at 23:18 (UTC).