green eggs and ham by dr. seuss game boy advance box art wiki

 

 Green Eggs and Ham is a Dr. Seuss children book. Published by the Beginner Books division of Random House on August 12, 1960. The book is the sequel to "Sam-I-am" as he trails an unnamed character, who he constantly asks to taste a plate of green eggs and ham until the unnamed character finally tries it and likes it.

Seuss created Green Eggs and Ham when his editor, Bennett Cerf, wagered on him (betting 50) that he could not write an interesting children book, using only a vocabulary of 50 words. Seuss made notes, charts, and checklists to help him track his progress because he found the challenge difficult. The book deals with issues of fights between people, but Seuss himself has claimed that there is no underlying meaning.

Critics greatly praised Green Eggs and Ham due to writing and illustration, and the difficulty of writing a 50-word book can be considered a success. The book has already been adapted several times, most recently in 2019 into a television series of the same name.
Plot

Sam-I-am invites a nameless character to a plate of green eggs and ham but Sam informs him that he hates the food. Sam keeps on telling him to eat the food and have some people eating food with him in different places and with different animals. Lastly, after the nameless character accepts to taste the meal that Sam has prepared, he finds out that he actually does like green eggs and ham and that he owes Sam-I-am thanks.
Writing and release

Theodor Seuss Geisel wrote under the pen name Dr. Seuss Green Eggs and Ham. The book was written at the bequest of his editor at Random House, Bennett Cerf, who had bet him 50 (a sum now equal to 531 in 2024) dollars that he could not write an engaging book about children with only 50 distinct words in its vocabulary. Seuss did make notes to calculate how to use the 50 words most effectively, drawing various charts and checklists[4][5][6], by the time he had finished sorting out the words he knew much about the statistics of his use of those words.

Green Eggs and Ham has a vocabulary of only 50 words: 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, and you.[3]. Of this number, the word not is the most repeated, and is employed 82 times in total.[6]. No other word in the book has over one syllable,[5][6].

Seuss was particularly upset by this limitation, and he wrote and rewrote several pages before he was happy with the rhymes[5]. The drafts were written using washi paper, to which Seuss taped his illustrations[8]. his wife Helen Palmer occasionally returned to his discarded drafts in the hope that on a second look he would find them acceptable, which he did not often do[5].

The first manuscripts had the nameless figure speak more threateningly to Sam-I-am. He was actually meant to say, "Sam-I-am" when the two characters were in a car at the top of the tree. You let me be. Not in a car. You let me be!" Seuss altered this to I would not, could not on a tree. Not in a car! You allow me to, so the scream is not so immediate and leaves the exclamation mark off the order. In another instance, he writes saying that I do not like you, Sam-I-am. The drafts also referred to the matter as green ham and eggs rather than the current wording, green eggs and ham[9].

In early spring of 1960, Dr. Seuss completed Green Eggs and Ham. It was to be read in April 19 in the office of Louise Bonino at Random House. The whole staff could attend these readings, but Cerf was absent that day, and so a dinner party was held to hear the reading. [10] Seuss was still critical of himself, and other pages he thought had not received the response he had expected were noted out at the reading. Phyllis Cerf had planned to announce Green Eggs and Ham with two other children's books, Are You My Mother? and Put Me in the Zoo, and a publicist was dispatched to ask the reviewers to delay the reviews until after advance copies had been distributed prematurely[6].

The book Green Eggs and Ham was released on the 12th of August, 1960. By then some three million books by Dr. Seuss had already been sold.[12].