[A] few facts about his life: Dr. Seuss was born Theodor Geisel in 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. His father was the curator of Forest Park Zoo. After graduating from Dartmouth College, Geisel launched a career in advertising, creating ads for Flit, an insecticide produced by Standard Oil. These ads consisted of a cartoon drawing of people enjoying a relaxing time reading or resting only to have a grotesque bug-like creature approach. The caption always read, "Quick, Henry, the Flit!" Looking at those cartoons today, you can see the seeds of the creatures that would later appear in his children's books.