Dr.Seuss Frm Then/Now

This is an excellent retrospective of the art of Dr. Suess (Theodor Geisel), published for the first major exhibition of his work in 1986. Written before his untimely death, it covers everything from his earliest student sketch books to _You're Only Old Once!_. While the cleverness of the good doctor's prose is sampled, it is really his artwork that steals the show. The book is filled with both glorious full color, as well as black and white, examples. There are also reproductions of most of the cover illustrations. The truly rare aspect of this book though, is the biographical insights that it gives into the artist's life. The struggles that he went through with underemployment and just trying to survive in the 1930's are especially inspiring these days. It is fascinating to see the artist's early magazine (Judge and Life) and advertising work (Flit and Esso.) The only noticable omission is his early Hollywood collaboration. There is absolutely no mention of the early Horton cartoons, or of "5000 Fingers of Dr. T."I especially enjoyed this book because of an incident that happened to me in grade school. I was always fascinated by the art in these books, but when I tried to look at them in third grade, I was told that I couldn't because they were below my "age level." That is a lie, these books, and this art, transcend any bureaucratic, mindless, age grouping. They are ageless and timeless.