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Sunday, December 20, 2009

More on Mrs. Dr. Seuss

After I discovered who the author of one of my favorite children's books was, I did a little research on her.

Here's her Wikipedia entry "Helen Palmer Geisel was born in 1899 and died in 1967, 24 years before her husband died." They met at Oxford, and apparently she persuaded him not to become a professor, but to be an artist instead.
She published several other books in addition to A Fish Out of Water, and worked as an actress. And, she committed suicide. Wikipedia attributes her suicide to “a series of illnesses (including cancer) spanning 13 years.”

But a story in
The New York Times
offers a different, somewhat seedier version. Geisel, it seems, remarried. His second wife was a woman named Audrey Diamond.

To let the Times pick up the tale:

Were you thinking the widow of the country's most beloved children's writer must have been a sentimental and devoted mom, admitting only the most traditional family values?

Sorry.

Audrey Dimond was married with two children when she fell in love with Ted Geisel. Mr. Geisel, 18 years her senior, was also married. In the wake of their affair, Mr. Geisel's wife, Helen, committed suicide, causing, as Mrs. Geisel puts it, ''a rather large ripple in the community of La Jolla.'' Mrs. Dimond divorced her husband to marry Mr. Geisel, 64, and when she did, her daughters, 9 and 14, were sent away to school.

''They wouldn't have been happy with Ted, and Ted wouldn't have been happy with them. He's the man who said of children, 'You have 'em and I'll entertain 'em.' ''

''Ted's a hard man to break down, but this is who he was. He lived his whole life without children and he was very happy without children. I've never been very maternal. There were too many other things I wanted to do. My life with him was what I wanted my life to be.'' ….

Oh, ok.

Might be nice to have some of Helen Palmer's words as well. Here's the first Mrs. Geisel's suicide note to her husband:


As one Dear Ted, What has happened to us? I don't know. I feel myself in a spiral, going down down down, into a black hole from which there is no escape, no brightness. And loud in my ears from every side I hear, 'failure, failure, failure... I love you so much ... I am too old and enmeshed in everything you do and are, that I cannot conceive of life without you ... My going will leave quite a rumor but you can say I was overworked and overwrought. Your reputation with your friends and fans will not be harmed ... Sometimes think of the fun we had all thru the years ..." Source: Judith and Neil Morgan. Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel: A Biography. pg. 195.

I wonder if I will ever be able to look at that picture book -- or any book by Dr. Seuss -- the same way?

I suppose that's a straw man of a question, though. Can we ever look at things we knew as children in the same way, once we've grown up and our innocence is lost? Adult lives are complicated and often messy. It appears that Seuss's life was just messier than average.

It is possible to be both charmed by the work and disturbed by the life. No different from Tiger Woods, really. Have to love the man's inimitable ability as an athlete. His personal life, not so much.

16 comments:

  1. This just makes me feel sick! How could Ted Geisel do that to his wife Helen, knowing she was ill and frail? I don't feel the same way about these books anymore!

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    1. Are you looking at it from Ted's perspective? Did it occur to he couldn't stand the thought of losing his wife over 50 years? If she had died, he would have been a widower anyway. Google Helen Palmer's suicide note. She herself understood she couldn't provide for Ted anymore but Didn't want his fans to hate. Also what they don't include are Ted's reaction to Helen's suicide.


      FYI I don't think it's right Ted did that. I actually came here Hoping someone would say Ted was a good guy who made a mistake but no. I actually can't get past it but I'm just saying there's more to the Story

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  2. sure, it wasnt ok what he did but i dont think that what happend should affect your opinion on his books though. get what im trying to say. but thats your problem not mine.

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  3. We are all human beings. No one is perfect.

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    1. That doesn't mean we cheat on a person who we love and then after they die, take up with our affair and then let he abandon her children for us. That's the most cruelest thing, Seuss destroyed a persons heart and let 2 children be scared for life.

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    2. Agreed, several lives destroyed or certainly scarred by Mrs. Diamond & "Dr. Seuss". Not very fond of a mother who so easily "abandons" her young daughters nor the married, famous author who encouraged this relationship.

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    3. Correction...She hadn't died yet,the affair was active leading up to the note was what I read...

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  4. Most of us are self serving dung beetles, Geisel and his second wife are no exception. The first Mrs Geisel should have taken him to the cleaners before she offed herself though. That would have been poetic justice; a bit of rhyme I don't think Old Ted would have found funny.

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    1. I agree!So tragic that the first Mrs. Geisel ended her life when she should have taken her husband to the "financial cleaners" and continue to live out her remaining years in peace and comfort.

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  5. I believe she did not commit suicide. They were sleeping in separate beds which could also mean that little miss Hag Dimand could very well have been there as well... Too sudden, the woman was too intelligent for her to end herself in such a way. one fish, Two Fish...It's all fishy to me! - ANDREA HERNANDEZ.

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  7. What a despicable man, how could you do that to 3 people. I seriously want to slap Seuss right now and then kick him while he's down. Helen was a beautiful soul and Seuss just let it get away from him. I like how he said after her suicide that he "didn't know whether to kill himself or just burn his house down and disappear" It shows he has some frigging heart for what he did, but then he fucking married this Diamond slut who leaves her husband & children in hopes for richness and fame. Seuss your a brilliant writer and this won't tarnish my love of your books and I will still be inspired by them. But as a man and a human being, you never learned how to act like it.

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  8. cool how much is this acid

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