A: Theodor S. Geisel wasn’t actually a doctor (at least not until his alma mater, Dartmouth, gave him an honorary PhD), but his unique poetic meter and kid-friendly, leap-off-the-page paintings did make him one of the most successful children’s writers in history (220 million books sold). From books intended to teach vocabulary and reading skills (like The Cat in the Hat) to allegorical tales of power-hungry turtles and environmental destruction (Yertle the Turtle and The Lorax, respectively), Dr. Seuss was a vital innovator in the world of children’s books for more than fifty years.

Of course, all that kid’s stuff doesn’t mean he didn’t have his fun in college. Dr. Seuss came from a long line of German brewmasters, which perhaps explains how he came to throw a drunken bash during his Dartmouth days. Due to school policy (and also federal law, since Prohibition forbade drinking in those days), Ted’s excellent venture got him fired from his position at Dartmouth’s humor magazine, the Jack-O-Lantern. But the wily Geisel never let The Man keep him down: he kept writing for the Jack-O-Lantern, adopting the pseudonym “Seuss” (his middle name) to get by the censors. Lucky for us, the name stuck.