There are biographies, and then there are psychological
biographies. The fallacies and hazards of the psychobiography
form are easy to name, but the form can produce miracles when
used well. Donald E. Pease's Theodor Seuss Geisel, a brief,
spirited new study of the life and work of the great Dr. Seuss,
provides a satisfying and surprising look at the motivations and
half-hidden meanings behind classic children's books like Cat in
the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham and How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
The biographer brings out the heavy psychological equipment to
analyze the first Dr. Seuss children's book, And To Think That I
Saw It On Mulberry Street, published in 1937 when the author was
33 years old. The book depicts a child with a vivid imagination
facing off against a stern father who rejects his son's artistic
spirit. Pease argues convincingly that young Theodor Seuss
Geisel's moral battle with his strict father shaped everything
about his work, and that it was the very intensity of this
father-son battle that