Myers as the Cat in a scene from the film. (Reuters file picture)

Washington, March 3: America paid homage yesterday — the centenary of his birth — to Dr Seuss, creator of The Cat in the Hat and many more of the most vivid characters from 20th century children’s literature.

The country joined in an outpouring of nostalgia that saw parades of costumed schoolchildren, the launch of a special stamp and the announcement that next week he will receive his own star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

San Diego, his home town, unveiled a bronze statue of the writer at his desk with the Cat in the Hat behind him.

It stands outside a post-modern library dedicated to holding 8,000 items including his letters, sketches and earliest works of art.

The cast of The Cat in the Hat included Spencer Breslin, Mike Myers and Dakota Fanning. Myers was the Cat.

Theodor Geisel, whose nom de plume came from his mother’s maiden name, was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

His father was a zookeeper and as a child he would draw the animals, often adding his own twists such as an extra hump on a camel’s back.

Before the Second World War he was a political cartoonist at the New York daily newspaper PM, calling for intervention against the Nazis. He later made propaganda films with Frank Capra.

He became a household name in the mid 1950s after his friend, the educational reformist William Spaulding, challenged him to write a book that primary school pupils could not put down.

His first tale, of a boy named Marco, was rejected by 27 publishers before it was bought by Vanguard Press.

Beatrix Potter praised it as near-perfect art. His 44 books have now been translated into 21 languages and have sold more than 500 million copies.