An early crayon drawing of a scene from "The Lorax," part of the LBJ Presidential Library collection and on display at the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature starting Saturday.

Sketches of a classic: early ‘Lorax’ art makes rare appearance at the NCCIL

Jun 06, 2012

At a dinner soiree for the Democratic Party some years ago, Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel found himself sitting next to Liz Carpenter, press secretary to Lady Bird Johnson.

Now Geisel knew that Lady Bird was an active advocate for environmental beautification and protection. So in search of a "safe topic" to discuss with Carpenter, he mentioned that he had written a little book about the issue — something called "The Lorax."

The good doctor himself takes it from here:

"Liz seemed interested, but soon after, she left the room," Geisel recalled in 1986. "When she reappeared, she called me to the phone and said, 'The President wants to talk to you.' I said 'Hello,' and there was LBJ thanking me for donating the drawings of The Lorax to his library in Austin, Texas." read more