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And Now for Something Completely Diffendoofer
Shannon Maughan -- 2/9/98
Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith complete a posthumous Dr. Seuss project
Authors and illustrators usually have snippets of ideas for characters or stories percolating in their imaginations. Dr. Seuss -- Theodor Geisel -- was no exception. He frequently jotted down notes, verses and sketches, which he would tack onto a bulletin board in his studio as works-in-progress. When Geisel died in 1991, his bulletin board contained something special: the beginnings -- several character sketches, a school setting and some verses -- of a picture book about an unusual schoolteacher. Janet Schulman, Geisel's longtime editor at Random House, learned of the treasure during a telephone conversation with Geisel's secretary Claudia Prescott, who then sent it to Schulman's office. While Schulman was thrilled to see the material, she was also perplexed about what to do with it. Thus began Schulman's efforts to respectfully "doctor Dr. Suess" and share his final work with fans.

The result is Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!, a picture book about a school where kids learn how to think, rather than memorize facts and formulas, "by Dr. Seuss with some help from Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith." Scheduled for release in April with a first printing of 350,000, this book marks the third posthumously issued book by Seuss (preceded by last fall's My Many Colored Days and Daisy-Head Mayzie in 1995).

Schulman held on to the Seuss sketches for nearly five years, until she was able to visualize a way to make it work. "The sketches had so much energy and vitality, but they were very far from being anything I could consider a book," she said. "I knew I could not approach the Seuss estate without a whole package, so I waited until I had an idea I thought would be acceptable to them." Schulman's brainstorm was to ask p t Jack Prelutsky to expand upon Seuss's verse and to invite illustrator Lane Smith to create new artwork.

"As soon as I saw Ted's sketches and the fun verses, I thought of Jack," said Schulman. "I've known him since my days at Macmillan, and we have worked on Random House p try anthologies together. And I got to know Lane in 1996 when I asked him to do new drawings for an edition of James and the Giant Peach." Schulman added, "Jack and Lane are very similar in some ways. They're Ted -- like kids who never grew up. They have a childlike way of looking at things."

Getting the Go-Ahead

When Schulman, Prelutsky, Smith and Audrey Geisel, Seuss's widow, all green-lighted the plan, Schulman discussed the project with Prelutsky's and Smith's editors, Susan Hirschman of Greenwillow and Regina Hayes of Viking, respectively. She got their approval and began ironing out the contractual fine points. "I knew it would be a miracle to negotiate these contracts to everyone's satisfaction," Schulman said. "I insisted that everything be split in threes [between Smith, Prelutsky and the Seuss estate]. Everyone received exactly the same advance and the same royalty."

Prelutsky and Smith shared Schulman's enthusiasm for the project, but both initially felt some trepidation, too. Prelutsky explained that he approached the book as a true collaboration. "I sort of pretended that Dr. Seuss was sitting next to me at the desk working on it," he said. "It was his book. I wanted to use the sorts of rhymes he would use but also the sorts of rhymes and meters I would use." Prelutsky followed Seuss's lead, fleshing out Seuss's ideas for the bushy-eyebrowed school principal and the janitor and his cleaning machine, and then developed his own plot elements. "I was pulling together a plot about a counterculture school, the kind we all wish we went to," he said. "But it needed something to hinge on, so I thought, 'What do kids dread most about school?' That simple question inspired a rhyming tale of a schoolwide test that had students shuddering with fear."

Smith, whom Schulman described as "an enormous Seuss fan," also had mixed reactions about the project at first. "I wanted to do it, but I wanted to be respectful," he said. "I didn't want it to be a posthumous book that merely imitated Seuss's style. It turned out to be a real hybrid of both styles."As he interpreted Prelutsky's text, Smith found many ways to acknowledge Seuss. "I paid homage to him with things like radiating lines coming out of people and different eye shapes. I made reproductions of his sketches and some of his other work and collaged them into my paintings. I think I ended up with interesting paintings that are sort of indebted to Seuss."

The book also contains a 16-page afterword by Schulman entitled "How This Book Came to Be," which includes Seuss's original sketches and notes. "I just fell in love with those sketches and wanted to show people how Ted had created them," she said.

All parties involved said they are thrilled with how the book turned out. Schulman describes Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! as "Ted Geisel in the 21st century -- it's something he would have loved." Smith wants fans to feel the same way. "Hopefully people will embrace it," he said. "Seuss kept coming back to this idea, but he never finished it. Now it's finished. I hope he would have liked it."
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