This is an I-Heart podcast.

Now all that was left neath

the bad-smelling sky was my big empty factory, the Lorax and I.

The Lorax said nothing. just gave me a glance,

just gave me a very sad, sad, backward glance, as he lifted himself by the seat of his pants,

and I'll never forget the grim look on his face when he heisted himself and took leave of this

place, through a hole in the smog without leaving a trace.

This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories,

and what you just heard is an excerpt from Dr. Seuss's 1971 book, The Lorax.

In 1989, this book was banned for the first time in a California school because

it was believed to portray logging in a poor light and would turn children against the

foresting industry. Dr. Seuss was raised as a Lutheran and had a strong religious background.

His books often included strong moral messages. But he was always careful with how he went about it.

Here to share a bit about Dr. Seuss's The Lorax, and The Grinch, by the way, is Brian J. Jones, author of Becoming Dr. Seuss.

In 1949, after he's come out of the Signal Corps, he's still making a career in ads, he's dabbled in Hollywood screen fixing and screenwriting.

He doesn't like it. It's writing by committees, a little bit miserable.

But he still really wants to do children's books.

And he's just successful enough at it as a sort of second job that he's actually asked to

lead a writer's workshop on writing children's books for the University of Utah in 1949.

It is a pivotal moment in children's literature because Seuss sits down and writes down by hand

what he thinks makes great writing for children.

And he's taking lessons that he's learned from Capper.

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