Audrey Geisel, widow and promoter of Dr. Seuss, dies at 97
As Dr. Seuss neared the end of his life, the children’s author told his wife that she would have to look after the Cat in the Hat, the Lorax, the Grinch and all the beloved characters he created.
It was a mission Audrey Geisel embraced for more than a quarter-century. As overseer of Dr. Seuss’ prolific and lucrative literary estate, she carefully guarded the whimsical works of the writer and illustrator less known as Theodor Geisel and expanded the Seuss legacy. She promoted a highly profitable multimedia brand, from books and films to theme park rides and the Broadway show “Seussical.”
Audrey Geisel, 97, died Wednesday at her home in the La Jolla section of San Diego, Random House Children’s Books announced.
Geisel, who founded Dr. Seuss Enterprises, said she took to heart the responsibility her husband left her when he died in 1991.
“You keep a firm control as if they really were your children,” Geisel told The Associated Press in 1998. “I don’t want the Cat in a bad part of town, so to speak.”
But she went far beyond keeping a tight grip on the empire. She broadly expanded it beyond what her husband cared to do while creating his 47 children’s stories.
And, oh, the places she went with it.
More than 10 million Dr. Seuss books sell each year and new works are coming out, such as last spring’s “Dr. Seuss’s First 100 words,” according to Random House.
The 2000 live-action film version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” starring Jim Carrey, was a box-office smash. But Audrey Geisel and critics despised the 2003 live-action adaptation of “The Cat in the Hat” that starred Mike Myers of “Austin Powers” fame.
“I never saw ‘Austin Powers,’ but I knew ‘Yeah, baby!’ and I didn’t want ‘Yeah, baby!’ at all,” she told the AP in 2004.
Geisel is credited as executive producer of the animated film “The Grinch,” which was released last month and tapped Benedict Cumberbatch to voice the title character.
A poll conducted by AP-NORC earlier this month put “The Grinch” just behind “It’s a Wonderful Life” of favorite holiday films or television. It didn’t specify if it was the Carrey version or the animated 1966 classic produced by Chuck Jones and narrated by Boris Karloff.
The movies have been lucrative with the recent “Grinch” production earning $245 million at the box office, according to Comscore. Animated film versions of “The Lorax” raked in $214 million and “Horton Hears a Who” made $154 million.
While Geisel has kept a tight rein on productions and merchandising, some of those efforts may have departed from Seuss’ spirit, said Philip Nel, an English professor at Kansas State University, who wrote “Dr. Seuss: American Icon.”
.jpg)
