My coworker is swearing up and down that not only was Dr Seuss a heroin junkie, but that many of his stories were about heroin.
I call bullshit on both counts, but am wondering if anyone hear has heard anything similar to give this coworker the benefit of the doubt.
I have never heard this or any rumor like it. Can your coworker provide some evidence?
Nope. No evidence so far. But as he’s my boss, I’m humoring him with this “search for truth”. Ahem.
Everyone knows Seuss was smoking bananas. That’s why he wrote Mellow Yellow and gave it to his old college buddy, Paul McCartney.
OK, he’s backing off the heroin claim now. Though the story he’s referring to is “Oh the places you will go.”
shrug
Has your boss actually read many Dr. Seuss books? It’s obvious the dude was on acid!
I had heard that Lewis Carroll was hitting the opium pipe when he wrote Alice In Wonderland.
My WAG is acid and weed, maybe a little opium . . . not heroin.
I have no actual data to back this up other than I read a bunch of Seuss when I was little, then 10+ year later I dabbled in drugs, but I’d agree with this.
The earlier Alice in Wonderland/Lewis Carrol quote, he was most definitely dabbling in hallucinogens, the heroin is up for debate though
I’ve heard that rumour. It was even parodied on the Dick Van Dyke Show, where Laura and Rob are trying to each sell their own story to a kiddie book publisher and the publisher says about one of his writers “He’s not creative, he just writes what he sees.”
That Sam I Am was definitely pushing something. But Hop on Pop? I just don’t see it. 
I heard he was hitting the little girl pipe, or hoping to.
Not clear - Was Lewis Carroll a perv? - The Straight Dope
Green Eggs and Ham was actually pushing marijuana, isn’t it obvious.
So maybe the title is missing a comma? “Green, Eggs and Ham”
Really? Oh, the Places You’ll Go? I didn’t get a drug vibe at all; or even a silly vibe. I interpret that book as trying to describe the vast diversity and wonderfullness of the wide world to a very small child to whom the actual exotic names and places would mean nothing. (tell them “Angkor Wat” or “capybara” and they don’t get it. This is why “Timbuktu” and “platypus” are more popular. They already sound like Dr. Seuss. ;))
It’s one of my favorite books, because I feel the same way about the world. Even though I haven’t travelled very far, I have seen some amazing and ridiculous stuff, because it’s everywhere.
First off, the book is called Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and it’s Lewis Carroll. In my college research I wasn’t able to find any biographers that believed that Carroll experimented with drugs. I still have my Works Cited page handy. Do you have any evidence to back up the claim that he was “most definitely dabbling in hallucinogens”?
As far as pedophile accusations, he did have a fondness for young girls, and I suspect there was probably some sexual attraction as well. But there’s no reason to believe he ever “crossed the line” or acted inappropriately on his impulses.
Don’t you get it? He was a hophead who was into skin-popping.
Drugs would definitely explain the Wocket in his Pocket, not to mention the Nooth Grush on his Toothbrush.
Mellow Yellow is by Donovan, not Paul McCartney.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled program.
McCartney did backup vocals and I can’t imagine he was very far from the writing process. It’s his kind of brainless.