Dr. Seuss Goes to War

Archive of war cartoons unveiled

"Dr. Seuss," aka Theodor Seuss Geisel, is world-famous for his Cat-in-the-Hat books, and the publishing phenomenon that followed.

While Dr. Seuss may be best known for works like The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham, he was also a prolific political cartoonist during World War II.  From 1941 to 1943, he penned editorial cartoons for the left-leaning New York newspaper PM from 1941 to 1943.

Not only did they reflect his feelings about war, but they expressed his abhorrence of anti-Semitism and racial discrimination. Economists, politicians, and generals did not escape his barbed wit, either.

Now the Huff Post reports that the Mandeville Special Collections Library at the University of California, San Diego, houses the original newspaper clippings of more than 400 cartoons that Dr. Seuss drew for PM, plus a series of war bonds advertisements that appeared in other publications.

While in-person viewing requires special permission, because the material is so fragile, the entire collection is available on the Dr. Seuss Collection website.