Dr. Seuss

Philip Nel is Assistant Professor of English at Kansas State University. He is the author of JK Rowling's Harry Potter Novels: A Reader's Guide (2001) - and The Avant-Garde and American Postmodernity (2002). He is currently writing a biography of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss.

• List of Illustrations; Introduction; U.S Laureate of Nonsense: A Seussian Poetics; Dr. Seuss vs. Adolf Hitler: A Political Education; The Doc in the Smock; The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. S.; The Disneyfication of Dr. Seuss; The Cat In the Hat for President; Epilogue; Notes; Annotated Bibliography; Index

"By his own admission, Nel offers a text that is somewhat schematic, he dedicates each chapter to a different aspect of Geisel's work and uses a different theoretical approach: on poetry, he uses formalism; on politics, historicism; on marketing, cultural studies; and so on. Such varying thematic interpretations reveal Nel's remarkable extensive research, which reaches from Geisel's political cartoons to his decisions about copyright and trademark to protect his own creations. Nel offers astute analyses of both racism and sexism in Geisel's work, and one particularly interesting chapter outlines the intertextual borrowings and influences from Geisel's work. All this is richly illustrate with more than 30 reproductions. The invaluable 70-page annotated bibliography lists both primary works and secondary sources - films, books, interviews, reviews, and Web sites. Essential." - Choice, 9/04