The 112th birthday of whimsical children's book author Ted "Dr. Seuss" Geisel will be celebrated in San Diego and around the U.S. with Read Across America Day and an event at the library named after him at UC San Diego.
Geisel was born March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts, and first used the pen name Dr. Seuss on a cartoon in the Saturday Evening Post in 1927.
His first book, "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street," was published 10 years later — after 27 rejections. After World War II, he moved to La Jolla and penned classics like "Green Eggs and Ham" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."
He died in 1991.
The National Education Association launched Read Across America on his birthday seven years later. The program promotes the importance of reading to school children.
NEA Vice President Becky Pringle plans to read to students this morning at Balboa and Carson elementary schools in San Diego.
At noon, a birthday celebration outside the library named for Geisel will include a giant inflatable Cat in the Hat, as well as free cake and Seussian musical entertainment by The Teeny Tiny Pit Orchestra.
