# Was Dr Seuss on heroin? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 27, 2009, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-dr-seuss-on-heroin/497855 "2009-05-27T22:26:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BeccaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@BeccaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeccaG)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-dr-seuss-on-heroin/497855/21 "2020-07-17T10:02:06Z")
I heard many years ago that Dr. Seuss smoked opium. He was born in 1904 and at that time Heroine was probably still widely used as a cough suppressant. Before you judge him, IF he did smoke opium, think of the times he was in where little was known about opiate addiction and this was long before the opiate epidemic. It makes sense to me after reading “The foot book” lol. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-dr-seuss-on-heroin/497855/22 "2020-07-17T12:53:53Z")
[quote=“filmyak, post:5, topic:497855, full:true”] OK, he’s backing off the heroin claim now. Though the story he’s referring to is “Oh the places you will go.” _shrug_ [/quote]Well, now, you have to go back as a true believer. Tell him that after doing research, now you think of course it’s true (just well hidden with lots of disinformation). Slowly add details like he got hooked because of a secret CIA experiment. The REAL Ted Geisel is buried below a former Stazi building in East Germany. There’s evidence he was actually the illegitimate son of Roald Dahl and the wife of a very high-ranking American official. That kind of thing. Yes I know it appears the dates don’t work for any of these discoveries, but that’s what they want you to think! ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-dr-seuss-on-heroin/497855/23 "2020-07-17T14:31:29Z")
Annnnd, he _thought_ he was writing Mellow Yellow with Paul McCartney, but then discovered that Paul had died and he was dealing with his look-alike William Campbell. After a few 'shrooms, they decided to keep the whole thing quiet (though Seuss did drop a few hints in his books…). … By the way, creativity can take you to the same _“Places You’ll Go”_ that drugs can. It’s cheaper that way, too… _[/dadlecture]_ … Every time someone starts in with "Dude had to be high to do _that!",_ I’ve noticed they’re not that creative themselves, so it’s unexplored territory for them. How creative is your boss? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-dr-seuss-on-heroin/497855/24 "2020-07-17T15:31:59Z")
Paul McCartney appears on “[Mellow Yellow](https://www.songfacts.com/facts/donovan/mellow-yellow).” > Paul McCartney appears somewhere on this track, but it’s not clear where. He was rumored to be the whispering voice saying “quite rightly,” but that was Donovan. McCartney dropped by the session and was captured on tape saying “Mellow Yellow” and doing some cheering. His voice is likely somewhere in the mix at the end of the song amid the revelry. Stick that in your banana and smoke it. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-dr-seuss-on-heroin/497855/25 "2020-07-17T17:41:31Z")
I had always heard the rumor that Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) wa doing drugs, and Alice in Wonderland does read as a drug trip - but most sources say the drugs were a 60’s urban legend, and the Alice books are equally plausible as describing a dream. I did once see a book of collected photos of maybe a dozen (semi)nude young girls by Charles; apparently he destroyed most of his glass negatives later in life. The photos were not explicit, more like the cherub pics you’d see in baroque decoration, either sitting sideways and/or with a piece of cloth draped over certain parts. In those less suspicious times, he even had the mothers sit in on the photo sessions. The story goes he had a stutter and as a child was picked on mercilessly by other boys. He ended up with a soft spot for girls. The Liddell family girls obviously liked him, and someone urged him to write down the tales he made up about one of them, Alice. However, story also goes that as Alice got older the Liddells distanced themselves from him out of fear he might ask for Alice’s hand in marriage - as a mere deacon and college professor he was :beneath" their family status. There’s a picture by him of Alice at 6 as “The Beggar Girl” dressed in rags with bare shoulders, probably an example of the sort of stuff he did that we would find questionable if someone did too much of it today - further down in the article. [Lewis Carroll's Shifting Reputation | Arts & Culture| Smithsonian Magazine](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/lewis-carrolls-shifting-reputation-9432378/) ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2020, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-dr-seuss-on-heroin/497855/26 "2020-07-18T01:26:50Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > I did once see a book of collected photos of maybe a dozen (semi)nude young girls by Charles; I believe there are actual nude young girl pictures. There doesn’t seem to be any evidence he did anything other than photograph them, but still… I do love his books regardless. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2020, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-dr-seuss-on-heroin/497855/27 "2020-07-19T08:16:04Z")
Would this be considered ‘beyond the pale’ today? [image removed by moderator as irrelevant to OP] ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2020, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-dr-seuss-on-heroin/497855/28 "2020-07-19T14:19:59Z")
Not by me, and I’m the father of two little girls, one six, the other three. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-dr-seuss-on-heroin/497855/29 "2020-07-20T02:34:43Z")
Charles Dodgson was using a glass plate camera. Photography was common at the time, but if you wanted pictures of your kids, you had to get a photographer to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-dr-seuss-on-heroin/497855/30 "2020-07-20T04:37:20Z")
**Moderator Note** Charles Dodsen’s proclivities have nothing to do with the original question about Dr. Suess. Let’s drop the hijack. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-dr-seuss-on-heroin/497855/31 "2020-07-20T05:12:38Z")
Closest I can remember was that at his time at UPA, legendary artist Art Babbitt worked with Dr Seuss. Dr Seuss was not involved but Babbitt did reply like this to those inquiring about if they were on drugs when they came with their weird ideas: “Yes! We were on drugs: Ex-Lax and Pepto-Bismol!” ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-dr-seuss-on-heroin/497855/32 "2020-07-20T11:05:32Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > > [@Derleth](#): > > > > Everyone knows Seuss was smoking bananas. That’s why he wrote Mellow Yellow and gave it to his old college buddy, Paul McCartney. > > Mellow Yellow is by Donovan, not Paul McCartney. > > I now return you to your regularly scheduled program. That’s exactly what they **want** you to believe. " I’m just wild about Fontaine. Fontaine’s wild about me. " Please. A small child could accurately I interpret these lyrics. After Paul died ( see album cover of " Abby Road "), he returned as Donovan. It’s all RIGHT THERE, man. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-dr-seuss-on-heroin/497855/33 "2020-07-22T16:27:12Z")
Seuss did do a book about seven Lady Godivas, illustrated in his classic style. Apparently it’s not part of the usual preschool children’s library collection. I don’t think he needed drugs to be creative. Sorry about helping the Alice hijack - just need to point out that there are plenty of stories that appear to be dreamy illogical sequences - it could just as easily be the imagination of the author, no drugs necessary. Everything from Connecticut Yankee to Alice’s adventures, to Wizard of Oz (at least, the movie - haven’t read the book) have sequences that turn out to be dreams, with wild and improbably occurrences. Children’s fairy tales from the middle ages have the same stream-of-consciousness appearance. That sort of writing just means a clever wild imagination, not a love of pharma. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-dr-seuss-on-heroin/497855/34 "2020-07-22T16:57:33Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > The REAL Ted Geisel is buried below a former Stazi building i Stasi ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2021, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-dr-seuss-on-heroin/497855/35 "2021-07-02T14:10:45Z")
Bumped. Just came across this, which is pretty good: [Poem: What If Dr. Seuss Wrote Technical Manuals?](http://holyjoe.org/poetry/anonE.htm) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-dr-seuss-on-heroin/497855.md?page=1)