when less is more…the story behind dr. seus’ green eggs and ham

July 31st, 2009

Bennett Cerf, Dr. Seuss’ editor, bet him that he couldn’t write a book using 50 words or less.  The Cat in the Hat was pretty simple, after all, and it used 225 words.  Not one to back down from a challenge, Mr. Geisel started writing and came up with Green Eggs and Ham – which uses exactly 50 words.

The 50 words used are: 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.

Entry Filed under: Book, Humor, Think About It!