Audrey Geisel | |
|---|---|
 Audrey Geisel in 2002 | |
| Born | Audrey Grace Florine Stone August 14, 1921 |
| Died | December 19, 2018 (aged 97) La Jolla, California, United States |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 2 |
Audrey Grace Florine Stone (August 14, 1921 – December 19, 2018) was the second wife of American children's book author Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss), to whom she was married from 1968 until his death in 1991. She founded Dr. Seuss Enterprises in 1993, and was President and CEO of the company until her death in 2018.
Audrey Grace Florine Stone was the daughter of Norman Alfred Stone, an English medical furniture salesman, and Ruth Benson, a nurse whose family was from Norway. She was baptised at the Ravenswood Covenant Church, Illinois, US. She grew up in and around Queens, New York, moving around as often as an "army brat".[1] Her parents' marriage was "off and on" and her father left early in her life.[2] When she was five her mother moved into a nurses' dormitory at the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital and sent her to live with a friend in New Rochelle, New York visiting her at the weekend.[1] She attended Julia Richmond School, Manhattan.[3]
Geisel studied nursing at Indiana University, earning a Bachelor of Science in nursing in 1944. Of her university application, she said she knew she was supposed to say that she wanted to "serve humanity", but what she really wanted was "to be in the centre of the action."
She worked in Massachusetts[4] and at the Coleman Obstetrical and Gynaecological Hospital at the Indiana University Medical Centre.[5] Long after she finished working as a nurse, she continued to renew her credentials, refusing to officially "hang up the whites".[6]
In 1945 she married fellow student, Edmunds Grey Dimond. He became a resident physician at the Indiana University[7] Medical Center and later Dean of Cardiology at the University of Kansas.[2] The couple travelled to Japan and Netherlands for his work, where she took lessons in sculpture.[5] They had two daughters, Lark Grey (b. 1953), a sculptor, and Leagrey, a bookstore owner. Of her role as a mother, she said, "I was the kind of mother I now regret […] But I don't live with regret, because what you see is what they got."[1] The family moved to La Jolla, San Diego in 1960 for Dimond to join Scripps Clinic, while Geisel volunteered in cancer wards.[8]
Geisel met Seuss and his first wife, Helen Palmer, at a party in La Jolla.[2] Of their first meeting she said, "As we went through the line, I noticed that when we got to Dr. Seuss, the inflection of the person introducing us was slightly different […] I thought, 'Well, it's for some reason.' Being my facetious best, I said, 'Dr. Seuss, you must have a very interesting specialty. The right or the left nostril?' And I remember him looking at me kind of startled and making no response."[9] The two couples became friends and later Geisel and Seuss began an affair, about which she said, "The feeling was that at his age you grab for the gusto. You don't wait. You don't think you have that much time."[10] In the wake of their affair, Palmer died by suicide on October 23, 1967.[11] In May 1968 Seuss wrote to friends, "Audrey and I are going to be married […] I am acquiring two daughters, aged nine and fourteen. I am rebuilding the house to take care of the influx. I am 64 years old. I am marrying a woman eighteen years younger… I have not flipped my lid. This is not a sudden nutty decision… This is an inevitable, inescapable conclusion […] All I can ask you is to try to believe in me."[12] Audrey Geisel divorced Edmunds Dimond on 21 June 1968.[12]
After the legally required six-week wait, Geisel married Seuss on August 5, 1968, at the Washoe County Courthouse in Reno, Nevada. They invited no friends.[13] They lived in a "Mount Soledad aerie" in La Jolla, where Seuss had previously lived with Palmer.[14] It had an "old stucco observatory and elegant, helter-skelter maze of rooms they have built around it."[15] When she moved in with Seuss, Geisel sent her daughters to boarding school[16] of which she said "They wouldn't have been happy with Ted, and Ted wouldn't have been happy with them."[17] She also said "I've never been very maternal. There were too many other things I wanted to do. My life with him was what I wanted my life to be."[17] The couple travelled widely, including Cambodia, India, France, UK, Kenya, Turkey, Greece, Australia, New Zealand, Morocco and Israel.[18][19][20][21]
When Seuss started losing his sight to glaucoma in 1975, Geisel served as his "eyes and driver".[6] Geisel took credit for Seuss's appearance, saying "I created the beard. He had a nose that was looking for a beard all his life."[22] It was in part to make Seuss's life easier as he began to lose his sight.[6] In 1989 Geisel was diagnosed with a benign brain tumour. It was successfully removed in January 1990.[23] She nursed Seuss during his final illness. He died of cancer in 1991.[24]
Geisel first visited Seuss' birthplace, Springfield, Massachusetts soon after their wedding. In 1997 she initiated fundraising to create a Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden in the town, by donating $1m. The garden includes bronze sculptures created by Geisel's daughter, Lark Grey Diamond-Cates.[25] 15 years later, with Geisel's approval, Springfield opened The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum.[26]
In her introduction to The Complete Cat in the Hat Geisel wrote about Seuss's writing process and how she was responsible for collecting "as many paperback thrillers as I could find, bring them home, stash them in a secret location and bring them out one at a time" when he was stuck for ideas and needed a break.[27] Of her relationship with Seuss, she said, "The idea was to keep the body there so it could take that mind as far as it wanted to go. I kept the Band-Aids going."[28]
Geisel was "credited with reinvigorating her husband's creative output". He published 20 books during their 25-year marriage, including The Lorax, You're Only Old Once! and Oh, the Places You'll Go!.[29] She was proud of her contributions to Seuss's work. His editors at Random House told her "His juices were getting diluted, and he needed something to start him again."[30]
She was also credited with "encouraging her husband to address more social issues" in his books, specifically The Lorax and the anti-war The Butter Battle Book.[31] When Seuss was stuck while trying to write a book about conservation issues, Geisel suggested a trip to Kenya to get his mind off his work. While there, Seuss saw a herd of elephants. Of the sight, he said he "grabbed a laundry list that I had beside me and wrote the whole book The Lorax in 45 minutes."[32] On the same trip, Seuss saw people cutting down acacia trees, and "he thought, 'they can't cut down my Dr. Seuss trees' – which he renamed Truffula trees."[2]
During an interview in 1986, Seuss noted that Geisel studied art and called her "the colour expert […] She always makes sure to tell me what's bad."[33] Geisel "accepted credit" for Seuss's change of colour palette for The Lorax.[34] Seuss also said Geisel was "the only adult who could read [his stories] aloud."[35]
In 1991, in response to the pro-life movement's adopting of a line from Horton Hears a Who – "A person's a person no matter how small" – in support of its cause, Geisel stated she "doesn't like people to hijack Dr. Seuss characters or material to front their own points of view."[36]
In the early 2000s Geisel dated Alexander Butterfield.[37]
She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on behalf of Seuss in 2004.[38]
Before Seuss died, Geisel had "the impression that I was going to be fairly involved in everything, […] it began to dawn on me that there was going to be a tremendous transition after his loss – I was going to do everything!"[39] Seuss left behind "drawers, closets and files of unsorted, uncatalogued material".[8]
To protect Seuss's name and copyrights, Dr. Seuss Enterprises was created in 1993. Geisel was President and CEO[40] and would "hold court each morning with aides at a La Valencia Hotel's restaurant[41] in San Diego […] arriving in a 1984 Cadillac with licence plate that said GRINCH."[42] Geisel was the prima inter pares on the board of three directors.[43]
Of her role, in 1994 she said, "My absolute desire, creed, intent is to carry forth from this day Ted's books, the sharing and ongoingness of those books, generation by generation, for all the reasons they were written in the first place. They're in our language."[44] Of looking after Seuss's characters she said "You keep firm control as if they really were your children. I don't want the Cat in the Hat in a bad part of town, so to speak."[16]
Soon after establishing Dr. Seuss Enterprises, Universal Pictures approached Geisel about creating a Seuss-inspired ride at the Universal Islands of Adventure, Florida. She refused, being "concerned the park would cheapen the image of Dr. Seuss." After many redesigns, Geisel finally gave her approval in 1995, retaining a lot of creative control during the production process of Seuss Landing.[45]
In 1994, she signed a deal with Living Books, a joint venture between Broderbund Software and Random House, for the multimedia rights to Seuss's work.[46]
By 1996, there was concern that Geisel had been over-saturating the market with too many Seuss-related products, with Brian Henson, of Jim Henson Productions saying "it is an unusual situation where there are different people working with the same characters on different sorts of projects all over the place. That makes it a little confusing." However, on one point Geisel was firm: "I don't want to go into the food business. I don't want one of our little people poking out from a box of Wheat Chex."[47]
In 1996 Steven Spielberg secured the rights to The Cat in the Hat for a live-action film.[48] However, in 1999 Geisel reclaimed the rights, saying, "They just couldn't get it right."[49]
After an aborted deal with TriStar Pictures had been cleared up, "one of Hollywood's biggest-ever book auctions"[50] took place in 1998, with Universal Pictures paying $5 million for the rights to How The Grinch Stole Christmas and up to $4 million for Oh, The Places You'll Go. (As of 2020 it was slated for a 2027 release as part of Warner Bros.' new Seuss universe).[51] As part of the bidding process, which included Tom Shadyac, the Farrelly brothers, Gary Ross and John Hughes, each interested party needed to pay $3 million to secure a meeting with Geisel.[52]
In 2004 she presided over Seusstennial: A Century of Imagination marking the centenary of Seuss's birth.[42] In 2013 she "opened the Estate's vault" and allowed some of Seuss's hat collection to tour the States, as the Hats Off to Dr. Seuss exhibition.[53] In 2015 she curated The Art of Dr. Seuss, an exhibition of paintings and sculptures.[54]
Geisel was involved in the following Seuss-related publications:
| Year | Title | Publisher | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss | Random House | Seuss wrote the text in 1973. Geisel brought it to the attention of his publishers after his death in 1992. When it was published four years later she wrote, "Ted had a panoramic view of ocean and land from his study, and he found the constantly changing patterns of light and color fascinating. He liked to compare the 'mood', or color, of the day to his own emotional barometer setting. Though his inspiration for this book was personal, he felt that someone else should bring his or her own vision to it".[55] The illustrations were made by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher. |
| 1994 | Daisy-Head Mayzie by Dr. Seuss | Random House | Geisel found the manuscript "buried at the bottom of a drawer" in the home she had shared with Seuss.[56] Of the discovery she said "To find something like that after I no longer had him was just wonderful for me."[57] |
| 1995 | The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss by Dr. Seuss | Random House | Produced in conjunction with Chase Art Group.[58] |
| 1996 | Theodor Seuss Geisel: Reminiscences & Tributes by Edward Connery Lathem | Continuum | Geisel wrote the introduction[59] |
| 1997 | Seuss-isms: Wise and Witty Prescriptions for Living from the Good Doctor | Random House | Geisel wrote the introduction. Containing Seuss aphorisms, about which Geisel said, "Seuss's books contain more sane, sensible, and just plain hilarious advice for living than most of the self-help books crowding bookstores today."[43] |
| 1997 | Oh, Baby, the Places You'll Go!: a Book to be Read In Utero by Tish Rabe | Random House | Geisel wrote the introduction, which included: "Some years ago, Ted and I came across an article about some researchers who had asked prospective mothers and fathers to read aloud to their babies in utero. To our delight, the book they read was 'The Cat In The Hat'"[60] |
| 1999 | Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss | Living Books | An interactive storybook made in consultation with Geisel[61] |
| 2004 | The Complete Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss | Collins | Geisel wrote the introduction.[62] |
| 2004 | Your Favorite Seuss: 13 stories Written and Illustrated by Dr. Seuss with 13 Introductory Essays | Random House | Contributed the article Living with the Cat[63] |
| 2008 | America's New Future: 100 New Answers: A Glimpse of the Future by 100 American Decision Makers by Doris Lee McCoy | Morgan James Publishing | Contributor |
| 2011 | The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories by Dr. Seuss | Random House | Geisel "worked with Random House" to publish seven 'lost' Dr Seuss stories from the 1950s[64] about which she said "I totally, wonderfully approve of anything that comes to light at this time of Ted's work"[65] |
| 2015 | What Pet Should I Get? by Dr. Seuss | Random House | Geisel found the manuscript during a house renovation.[2][66] |
| 2015 | Oh, the Things You Can Do that are Good for You! All about Staying Healthy by Tish Rabe | Random House | |
| 2015 | Oh, the Places You'll Go 25th Anniversary Portfolio by Dr. Seuss | Random House | Geisel wrote the introduction |
| 2019 | Dr. Seuss's Horse Museum | Random House | Geisel found 80% of this book in a folder marked 'Noble Failures' after Seuss's death. It was completed by Andrew Joyner, an Australian illustrator.[67] |
Seuss dedicated the following books to Geisel and her daughters:
Geisel was involved in the following in her role as CEO of Dr. Seuss Enterprises:
| Year | Title | Distributor | Geisel's role and notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Daisy-Head Mayzie | Hanna-Barbera | Producer. Won CableACE award for best children's special[31] |
| 1995 | The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss | Henson Productions | |
| 1998 | An Awfully Big Adventure: The Making of Modern Children's Literature | BBC | Geisel was the narrator |
| 2000 | How the Grinch Stole Christmas! | Universal Pictures | Producer Brian Grazer won the rights after a two-year process. Of Geisel, he said "Audrey Geisel was a little like Isaac Asimov's wife, in fact: she was a fierce protector of the legacy of her husband."[69] He described Geisel as "Very sharp, somewhat reserved, and tough."[52] Director Ron Howard went through eight scripts before Geisel gave her approval.[70] Actor Jim Carrey had to "literally convince Geisel of his ability to play the part".[71] |
| 2003 | The Cat in the Hat | Universal Pictures | Of Mike Myer's performance Geisel said "I never saw Austin Powers but I knew "Yeah, baby!" and I didn't want "Yeah, baby!" at all."[16] |
| 2008 | Horton Hears a Who! | 20th Century Fox | Producer. Geisel reportedly prompted some changes, stating Horton's teeth were too big, and the kangaroo's pouch hung too low.[31] |
| 2012 | The Lorax | Universal Pictures | Executive producer and "benevolent overseer"[72] |
| 2018 | The Grinch | Universal Pictures | Executive producer |
| 2019 | Green Eggs and Ham | Netflix | Screenwriter Jared Stern said "I had to pitch the story to her, and it was incredibly scary. Once it was over, she said something to the effect of 'I wondered what you were going to do to this. But I think you captured it, and you have our blessing.'"[73] |
Geisel became president of the Dr. Seuss Foundation, which was established in 1958.[77] A portion of all sales of Dr. Seuss books is donated to the Foundation[78] which supports the arts, civic and public affairs, education, health, international relief, social services and religious welfare with a focus on California.[79]
In 1993, together with Kellogg's Corporation, the Foundation donated 500,000 books to nearly 2,000 schools which served disadvantaged children. In 1998 Geisel waived royalties to How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and donated $100,000 from the Foundation to help cover the costs of free tickets for San Diego's children who would be unable to afford to pay otherwise.[80]
The fund supported [and continues to support] dozens of charitable organisations in San Diego through the donation of "millions of dollars".[40] Of her support of San Diego, she said, "I truly love this town. And I saw all the problems in the underbelly […] all the mental problems, poverty, sociological problems. Illiteracy."[81] In 2000 she said, "I'm kind of the safety net under San Diego."[17] Some of the causes she supported included:
Through the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC)[89] the fund established the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for the "most distinguished American book for beginning readers". In 2012 the Dartmouth Medical School was renamed the Geisel School of Medicine, to reflect the couple's generosity over many years.[26]
Following Geisel's death, the Chancellor of UCSD said the university "would not be the same top-ranked research institution it is today without her enthusiastic generosity and vast university involvement."[90] Geisel was involved in many aspects of the university's activities. Of her relationship with UCSD she said "I feel so much part of this university. I just do."[82]
Geisel's support included:
She also supported the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Health Sciences, UCSD Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center and the Preuss School.
She was on the following USCD boards:
Following her death, Scripps renamed the pavilion on its Torey Pines site the Geisel Pavilion.[96] Geisel's La Jolla home was donated to UCSD. It was put up for sale in 2022 with the net proceeds put into a Geisel Fund.[97]
Geisel received the following:
1994 – Champion Award from National Hospice Organization[44]
1995 – Nominated for Primetime Emmy Award for Daisy-Headed Mayzie[31]
1995 – Revelle Award for "distinguished and sustained service to UC San Diego by persons who are not members of its faculty or staff"[92]
2000 – Recipient of honorary degree from Dartmouth College[104]
2001 – IUPUI Spirit of Philanthropy Award from Indiana University[105]
2007 – Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (LHD) from Indiana University[105]
2008 – A star was named in her honour to recognise over 50 years of support for Scripps Clinic and Scripps Green Hospital[106]
2010 – Chancellor's Medal from UC San Diego[90]
2011 – Women Who Mean Business Lifetime Achievement Award from San Diego Business Journal[107]
2011 – The Old Globe, San Diego honoured Geisel at its annual gala in recognition of her "significant contributions" to the Globe[108]
2012 – Reception in Geisel's honour by Scripps Research Institute in recognition of her donation to upgrade the auditorium[109]
2012 – San Diego Symphony honoured Geisel at a performance of The Sneetches[110]
2013 – Honoree of the Heart of San Diego Gala, for her support of the UC San Diego Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center[90]
2016 – Patrons of the Prado honoured Geisel at their 2019 gala "for the inspiration and countless contributions she has made to the arts which enrich our community"[111]
2016 – Library café named Audrey's in her honour[112]
2016 – San Diego Legendary Women of the Heart[113]
Date unknown – Sixth Annual Humanitarian Award from the Hospice of San Diego[94]
Geisel created the following awards and positions:
