Success only flourishes in perseverance -- ceaseless, restless perseverance.
--Baron Manfred Von Richtofen

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Hooray for Dr. Seuss!

Don't you just love Dr. Seuss? I do. I think he's one of the greatest writers ever. What other author gets his birthday celebrated around the country every year? He taught us how to read. What's not to love?

What truly inspires me, though is when I learned that his first picture book, And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street, was rejected by 27 different publishers. 27! He had about decided to give up on writing children's books, when he ran into a friend who worked for a publisher. The friend offered to show his manuscript to the big bosses, and they decided to publish it. So, we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief that the world was not deprived of Dr. Seuss because of a boatload of rejections. I try to remember that when I feel discouraged about this whole process. What if he had given up? I shudder to think of it.

Just remember what Dr. Seuss himself said:

“You’re off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So . . . get on your way!” (from Oh, the Places You'll Go.)


9 comments:

Linz said...

Thank you for sharing this! I love Dr. Seuss, and I am very happy that he never gave up! (BTW - Mulberry Street is probably my favorite of his!!)

Jennifer said...

I love Dr. Seuss! Glad he never gave up--otherwise the children's book world wouldn't have been nearly as colorful. :) Thanks for sharing this!

Jennifer Shirk said...

I Love DR. Seuss, too!

I even saw Seussical the Musical and it was GREAT!!

Diana Paz said...

Another Seuss lover!! Sometimes I think my kids like Green Eggs and Ham a little TOO much :)

tiffany said...

thsnks for the post my fav is oh the places you will go

Unknown said...

Wonderful post and so true!

Shelli (srjohannes) said...

he is a classic -

Roni Loren said...

I ♥ Dr. Seuss.

Rosslyn Elliott said...

I'm glad I found your blog. I'm a fan of classic speculative fiction, though I write historicals myself. Thanks for the encouragement! My agent is just submitting my novel, so I may need that reminder about how to handle setbacks in the publishing journey. :-)