The Legacy of Beginner Books
My Seuss-seeking son leads me on a discovery of creativity and collaboration under fire
What do World War II Signal Corps training videos, Beginner Books for emerging readers, and Silly Symphonies all have in common? A lot more than you’d think!
Beginner Books
It’s library morning for my preschool-aged son and me. His library routine runs like clockwork: supersonic race from the curb to the book return; faster-than-light rocket from the book return to the library door. Upon entering the library, he announces to patrons and librarians at large he does not need to use the potty. Then, my request for him to use his walking feet is duly ignored as he thunders to the children’s section to pillage the stacks for Dr. Seuss.
I tell friends, neighbors, and anyone who will listen, how our son has checked out every Dr. Seuss book in the library—and my aching back has lugged them all home! However, I am wrong, because every time we visit the stacks, my four-year-old Seuss sleuth discovers some new Seussian treasure. At times he unearths a non-fiction find, in which the Cat in the Hat and friends embark on a learning adventure about science. Sometimes his delving uncovers new compendium that collects stories from Dr. Seuss and similar Beginning Books authors, such as Robert Lopshire, Marilyn Sadler, and P.D. Eastman. These compendiums form a tantalizing rainbow: The Big Blue Book of Beginner Books, The Big Green Book of Beginner Books. For his birthday, he received The Big Purple Book and The Big Aqua Book.
These compendiums and the books they contain are published by Beginner Books, an imprint of Random House. Beginner Books sport the “Cat in the Hat” logo on the spine of every volume, which means my Seuss-seeking-son can easily find any book published by the imprint on the library shelves.
Bathed as I currently am in Dr. Seuss and the Beginner Books imprint, I got curious about the relationship between Seuss, the Beginner Books imprint, and other authors published published alongside Seuss. To my delight, not only did I find a few of my collaboration suspicions to be be true, but I was intrigued to unearth some totally unexpected creative connections.
Suess, co-founder and editor
Dr. Seuss was Theodor Geisel’s pen name. Geisel’s life more or less spanned the 20th century. Around 1940 he published his first bestseller as Dr. Seuss (Horton Hatches the Egg). In 1957 he and his wife founded the Beginner Books imprint. Geisel and his wife (Helen Palmer) both wrote for the imprint. Geisel also recruited writers, established a house style, helped shape stories to fit that style, and served as editor-in-chief.
Writers contributing to the Beginner Books imprint included Robert Lopshire (Put Me in the Zoo), Stan and Jan Berenstain of Berenstain Bears fame, Al Perkins (Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb), Marilyn Sadler (P.J. Funnybunny) and Michael Frith (I’ll Teach My Dog 100 Words).
Geisel influenced all these writers, but his closest relationship was with fellow writer and cartoonist, P.D. Eastman (our son adores Eastman’s Fred and Ted books). Just as with the other authors in Beginner Book’s emerging stable, Geisel offered guidance, direction, and editorial assistance to Eastman, but their connection and collaboration ran far deeper than that.
Private SNAFU
What do you do with a bestselling children’s author when World War II breaks out? Put him to work in the FMPU.
From about 1942-1946, Theodore Geisel and P.D. Eastman were stationed in Culver City, California with the FMPU (First Motion Picture Unit) under the Army Signal Corps. In their era, the Signal Corps was the information branch of the army, and Geisel and Eastman, with their backgrounds in children’s literature and political cartoons, were put to work producing propaganda films to support the war effort. Their humor and didactic backgrounds were especially critical to creating training films for enlisted soldiers.
In order to teach WW II soldiers to survive, Geisel and Eastman dreamed up a memorably bumbling everyman character. Private SNAFU humorously made every mistake in the book so real-life privates might be spared. Private SNAFU’s mistakes taught troops important lessons ranging from the finer points of camouflage to preventing dysentery.
When they were created, FMPU never meant to share Private SNAFU videos with the public. But now we have YouTube, so there’s hours of Geisel and Eastman’s films available online. When I watched some of these videos, their Seuss-inspired absurdity and imagination were evident. So was the Beginner Book ethic of giving story beats sufficient time and space to resonate with their audience. The intention to teach through humor, wit, and silliness is unmistakable.
This was what I more or less expected to find when I watched the educational Private SNAFU films. However, to my surprise, I noticed something else I hadn’t expected.
Unexpected Audio Connections
When watching Private SNAFU, there’s no mistaking the voice of Looney Tune’s voice celebrity Mel Blanc, nor of the recognizable musical stylings of Carl Stalling, who composed not only for Warner Brothers Looney Tunes, but for Disney’s Silly Symphonies! (Check out my post on Carl Stalling and the Skeleton Dance, perfectly in tune with the Halloween season; it explores the power of fast iteration on creative innovation).
Thanks to the Army Signal Corps and the FMPU, Geisel and P.D. Eastman united with other creatives like Mel Blanc and and Carl Stalling. Geisel and Eastman were vital assets to the Hollywood teams in both storyboarding and scriptwriting. Their talent for entertaining and engaging while educating not only came in handy, but was further honed through Private SNAFU and related projects.
I’m fascinated by this era when World War II threw together creative types and put them not only on a mission, but on a heavy-rotation production schedule. As a little kid, I grew up devouring Beginner Books—just as my son is now doing. That’s why I’m so intrigued not only with the connection between Dr. Seuss, P.D. Eastman, and Beginner Books, but by the connection with Hollywood, animation studios, voice actors, and composers. Appreciating where these creative influences came from makes me feel—in some tiny way— part of the legacy of their history of collaboration.