Only 50 words are used in Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham. The use of only 50 words was due to a bet that Bennett Cerf, Dr. Seuss' editor and co-founder of Random House, made in 1960 with the author that Dr. Seuss couldn't write a book using 50 words or less. The bet was for $50 (the equivalent of $382 as of 2011). Dr. Seuss succeeded, and Green Eggs and Ham became one of his best-selling books. In a poll done by the School Library Journal in 2012, Green Eggs and Ham placed as one of the "Top 100 Picture Books".
More about Dr. Seuss:
- Dr. Seuss' real name was Theodore Geisel. Seuss was his mother's maiden name and his middle name.
- In college, he used other pen names: Dr. Theophrastus Seuss, Theo LeSieg, and Rosetta Stone.
- Along with writing children's books, Geisel also wrote political cartoons between 1941 and 1943.