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Legacy Translations, Languages At the time of Ted's death on September 24, 1991, some 200 million copies of his books, translated into 15 different languages, had found their way into homes and hearts around the world. Since then, sales continue to climb year after year. Posthumous Works Six books were produced posthumously, all based on Dr. Seuss materials, with one exception: My Many Colored Days was written by Ted himself in 1973, but the text was not discovered until after his death. Many of these posthumous books, such as Daisy-Head Mayzie and My Many Colored Days, were made into animated specials. New Media Forms Though Ted was fascinated with computers, he himself never learned to use one. He was certain that they could be used effectively to supplement reading and teaching; the question that remained, however, was how? CD-ROMs were mere blips on technology's screen at the time of Ted's death in 1991. His dream was realized in 1994 when Living Books began producing CD-ROMs of Dr. Seuss books, packaged with smaller book versions of the same titles. Children could follow along, matching words with pictures and recognize words as a result. In 1993, Ted's widow Audrey founded Dr. Seuss Enterprises (DSE) to protect and monitor the use of Dr. Seuss's characters for licensing purposes. Mrs. Geisel oversees the selection process of each project, always considering Ted's wishes and dreams. She believes Ted would have been thrilled with new media technology: “He liked to have things as visual and complete as it could be. . . . Had he been able to stay even longer than he did, he would have moved right into new ways of communicating.” Shortly before his death, when Ted was asked if there was anything left unsaid, he pondered the question and finally responded: “The best slogan I can think of to leave with the U.S.A. would be: 'We can . . . and we've got to . . . do better than this.'” (Morgan, p. 287) After devoting 53 years to creating entertaining and instructive books, the good Dr. Seuss taught all that he could teach. Theodor Seuss Geisel died on September 24, 1991, at the age of 87. As permanent reminder to the reading public, the final line in Ted's final book (Oh, the Places You'll Go!) issues the following charge: “You're off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So . . . get on your way!” Bibliography Cohen, Charles. Personal Interview. August 2001. |