Ted pursued a Ph.D. in English literature at Oxford for a while, but dropped out when he decided that his studies were "astonishingly irrelevant."
In 1950, Ted invented the word "nerd."
In l984 he won a Pulitzer prize.
After dropping out of Oxford, Ted worked nine years for Standard Oil as a designer of brochures.
In the summer of 1936, he found himself below deck on the MS Kungshold, listening to the rhythm of the ship's engines trying to distract himself from a horrendous storm.
To further distract himself, he began writing a nonsensical poem to the beat of the pounding motors.
"I was trying to keep my mind off the storm that was going on. This rhythm persisted in my head for about a week after I was off the ship and, probably as psycho-therapy, I began developing the theme."
When his nonsensical poem was finally complete, Ted decided that instead of signing it with his real name, Theodor S. Geisel, he would only use his middle name.
Admitting he knew nothing about children's books and being rejected 28 times by publishing houses, in a singular, magical moment worthy of all the pixie dust of Tinker Bell, the world's beloved "Dr. Seuss" was born.
Who's the nerd?