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
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.
"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
*E.R. Baer*
"Like The Cat in the Hat, which can be enjoyed by both parents and
children, lay people and scholars, Nel's book neither forgets nor
talks down to its audience. A fine example of scholarship, Dr.
Seuss: American Icon will be equally at home on the researcher's
bookshelf or the Seuss fan's coffee table. Well-written,
well-argued, and well-conceived, Nel's good-humored book teaches a
lesson of which Dr. Seuss would approve: good scholarship, like
good literature, can be both rich and accessible. It's a lesson
from which we might all learn." -Humor: International Journal of
Humor Research, 17-4, 2004
"Dr. Seuss: American Icon provides the reader a memorably excellent
survey of Dr. Seuss' many achievements." -Library Bookwatch,
November 2004
"Because Nel frames his discussion within contemporary criticism,
his analysis is more important to children's literature scholars in
the academy....he sprinkles the scholarly publications of other
throughout his text, thus supporting his conclusions. His text is
richly embedded with the earlier research of children's literature
scholars and ties into cultural aesthetics and children's
literature....environmental ideal, and his markers of political
protest in his images is most valuable....they will have an
important impact on further discussions of Dr. Seuss cartoonist,
satirist, consumer magnate, and instigator of twenty-first-century
aesthetics in American children's culture." -The Lion and the
Unicorn, 1/05
"Dr. Seuss: American Icon is consistently lively, engaging, and
impeccably researched. Its seventy-two-page annotated bibliography
alone will prove indispensable to future Seuss researchers and
useful for students and scholars of twentieth-century American
children's literature and culture..." -Children's Literature 33,
2005
mention
*Children's Literature Association Quarterly*
"...very well conceived text. With its focus on Seuss's aesthetics,
politics, and legacy in American cultural life, Dr. Seuss: American
Icon should appeal to Americanists and to children's literature
scholars alike."- Gwen Athene Tarbox, American Studies, Vol.
47:2
*American Studies*
"He provides extensive commentary, endnotes, and an annotated
bibliography, increasing the value to academics...the book provides
fertile ground for further study." --School Library Journal, August
2005
*School Library Journal*
"He provides extensive commentary, endnotes, and an annotated
bibliography, increasing the value to academics...the book provides
fertile ground for further study." --School Library Journal, August
2005
*School Library Journal*
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