0 'Green Eggs and Ham': A $50 Bet, 50 Words, 50 Years Later


Dr. Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham, Sam-I-Am
"Would you like them in a house?
Would you like them with a mouse?

I do not like them in a house.
I do not like them with a mouse.
I do not like them here or there.
I do not like them anywhere.

I do not like green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am."

The fourth-bestselling English-language children's hardcover book of all time turned fifty years old this week. Dr. Seuss' classic story of Green Eggs and Ham was first published on August 12, 1960 and continues to teach children everywhere how to read.

The book was a result of a wager between author Theodor Seuss Geisel and Bennett Cerf, his editor at Random House. At the time, Dr. Seuss had already written The Cat in the Hat using just 225 words. So Cerf wagered $50 that Dr. Seuss could not write an intelligent, entertaining children's book in just fifty words. Fifty years later, we all know the outcome of that bet.

The vocabulary of the text consists of 49 monosyllabic words with the one exception—"anywhere":
a
am
and
anywhere
are
be
boat
box
car
could
dark
do
eat
eggs
fox
goat
good
green
ham
here
house
I
if
in
let
like
may
me
mouse
not
on
or
rain
Sam
say
see
so
thank
that
the
them
there
they
train
tree
try
will
with
would
you
I imagine that today Dr. Seuss would be one of the twitterati. Don't you agree?


[Source: Wikipedia]

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

0 Response to "'Green Eggs and Ham': A $50 Bet, 50 Words, 50 Years Later"

Post a Comment

Powered by Blogger