The Cat in the Hat, by Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel) is generally considered the author’s most famous character among his extensive repertoire of works for children. The famed cat inaugurated Seuss’ Beginner Books. The first book was created in response to a May 1954 Life magazine article questioning why students were having difficulty learning how to read. Working with a list of 400 words provided by his publisher, Geisel completed the first Cat book using only 236 different words.