HELEN
I
thought it was good, too.
Helped and cossetted
the man of rhymes
Given over to him my
life of lines
Oh yes, I wrote, too,
for little kids
Small goody two-shoes.
Who answered the call
wanting to know
What I am doing next
Saturday so.
There was no fall, I
had it all
But he was the star, he
was going far.
We celebrated him, sang
paeans of praise
I washed, I cooked, and
not to be mean,
I even cleaned.
I waited while he
created and we lived
and we loved while God
up above saw it and
said, This is good.
What clinched the writing of this play was when I read Helen Palmer Geisel's suicide note. She swallowed a handful of barbiturates at age 68, knowing that she had lost her husband to the much-younger Audrey Stone Dimond. I am so certain that Helen was wronged and that Theodor Geisel's cruel treatment lead to the taking of her life.
Helen Geisel wrote in her suicide note: "Dear Ted, What has happened to us? I don't know. I feel myself in a spiral, going down down down, into a black hole from which there is no escape, no brightness. And loud in my ears from every side I hear, 'failure, failure, failure... I love you so much ... I am too old and enmeshed in everything you do and are, that I cannot conceive of life without you ... My going will leave quite a rumor but you can say I was overworked and overwrought. Your reputation with your friends and fans will not be harmed ... Sometimes think of the fun we had all thru the years ..."
Ted Geisel wrote after discovering Helen
was dead, "I didn't know whether to kill myself, burn the house down, or just go away and get lost."
I have to say here, I wonder why what TG had to say is part of the Wikepedia entry on HPG? Not only this, if you look at her entry, half of it is about Theodor Geisel and the works he produced.
It's all such a shame and a sham as this disturbing image points out.
What clinched the writing of this play was when I read Helen Palmer Geisel's suicide note. She swallowed a handful of barbiturates at age 68, knowing that she had lost her husband to the much-younger Audrey Stone Dimond. I am so certain that Helen was wronged and that Theodor Geisel's cruel treatment lead to the taking of her life.
Helen Geisel wrote in her suicide note: "Dear Ted, What has happened to us? I don't know. I feel myself in a spiral, going down down down, into a black hole from which there is no escape, no brightness. And loud in my ears from every side I hear, 'failure, failure, failure... I love you so much ... I am too old and enmeshed in everything you do and are, that I cannot conceive of life without you ... My going will leave quite a rumor but you can say I was overworked and overwrought. Your reputation with your friends and fans will not be harmed ... Sometimes think of the fun we had all thru the years ..."
Ted Geisel wrote after discovering Helen
was dead, "I didn't know whether to kill myself, burn the house down, or just go away and get lost."
I have to say here, I wonder why what TG had to say is part of the Wikepedia entry on HPG? Not only this, if you look at her entry, half of it is about Theodor Geisel and the works he produced.
It's all such a shame and a sham as this disturbing image points out.
