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Decades before he became a best-selling children's book author, Dr. Seuss, aka Theodor Geisel, created a series of sculptures he called his "Unorthodox Taxidermy." Using real horns, beaks and antlers, he fashioned whimsical creatures which look like they jumped right out of his books.

 has landed at a gallery in Long Island. Today we bring you that story (how else?) in verse:

When Dr. Seuss was three — or two,
his family lived by the zoo.

And as he lay in bed at night,
loud noises gave him great delight.

Jeff Schuffman reps the Seuss Estate,
and says that Ted would stay up late:

"At night, he can hear the tigers roar and the elephants bellow and so forth. And he was always drawing animals."

(While Jeff was generous with time
alas, his comments do not rhyme.)

As Ted got older and he grew
He never did forget the zoo.

For art that pulled out all the stops,
Young Ted relied on good old Pops:

"His father was in charge of the zoo and when Seuss moved to New York City, his father started sending him various beaks and horns and antlers of animals that had met their natural demise for him to create something with. And then he decided to turn them into the Collection of Unorthodox Taxidermy."

And — oh! — these creatures on the wall
are not like ones you've seen at all.

But don't despair, or get too squirmy
This is Seuss-y taxidermy!

But Schuffman's favorite of the group
has eyes that shine and ears that droop:

 with his inquisitive look and forlorn smile. Actually, the original was constructed with rabbit ears. And then he would take, you know, papier-mache and clay and mount it on these wood mounts to create this incredible, very unique and actually limited collection. He only made 17 sculptures that we're aware of."

Still, since the ones the Dr. made
are delicate and somewhat frayed,

the animals that go on tour
are copies, (as we said before).

For kids who see this silly show,
they do not care or do not know —

like Alexandra Thompson, who
adores a fish that's red, not blue,

with razor teeth and pointy snout.
She loves it, (she could almost shout):

And if you think there's nothing worse'n
missing seeing these 

If strange creatures bring you cheer,
we've posted photos for you 

Arts and Culture

The Thread® - Books and Literary News

Jeff Lunden

Author

Decades before he became a beloved children's book author, Theodor Geisel (better known as Dr. Seuss) created a series of whimsical sculptures he called "Unorthodox Taxidermy."

Before his name was known at all, Seuss put creatures on the wall

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