Teddy Roosevelt left [him]... with a permanent case of stage fright.
Affirming the loyalties of his German-American family during World War I, 14-year-old Ted Geisel was one of Springfield’s top sellers of war bonds. Before an audience of thousands, Ted was to be the last of 10 Boy Scouts to receive a personal award for his efforts from former president Theodore Roosevelt. The president, however, was only given nine medals, and when he reached Geisel, Roosevelt gruffly bellowed, “What’s this little boy doing here?” Honor quickly turned to humiliation as the flustered scoutmaster whisked Ted off the stage. The event so scarred Dr. Seuss that he dreaded public appearances for the rest of his life.
And decades later,
...[a] chance sidewalk encounter led to Dr. Seuss’ first children’s book.
After a 27th publisher rejected his first manuscript, Dr. Seuss walked dejectedly along the sidewalks of New York, planning to burn the book in his apartment incinerator. On Madison Avenue, however, he bumped into Dartmouth friend Mike McClintock, who that very morning had started a job as an editor in the Vanguard Press children’s section. Within hours, the men signed a contract, and in 1937 Vanguard Press published “And to Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” which launched the extraordinary literary career of Dr. Seuss. “If I had been going down the other side of Madison Avenue, I’d be in the dry-cleaning business today,” he later said.
Here's a link to more biographical facts.
And here is perhaps a cat picture you have not seen:
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