What happens when you challenge one of the most imaginative writers in history to use only 50 words to create a children’s book? You get one of the most beloved titles of all time: Green Eggs and Ham.
Back in the late 1950s, Dr. Seuss’s editor, Bennett Cerf, bet him $50 (about $531 today) that he couldn’t write an engaging book with a vocabulary of just 50 distinct words. This bet came on the heels of Seuss’s success with The Cat in the Hat, which used 236 different words. Always up for a challenge—but finding this one especially tough—Seuss armed himself with notes, charts, and checklists to track every single word.
Of the 50 words that made the final cut, “not” appears the most—82 times! And fun fact: “anywhere” is the only word in the entire book with more than one syllable.
The restrictions frustrated Seuss, and he rewrote pages over and over. His wife even tried sneaking discarded drafts back onto his desk, hoping he’d reconsider them. (He rarely did.) But in early spring of 1960, he finished the manuscript, and Green Eggs and Ham hit shelves on August 12, 1960. By then, three million Seuss books had already been sold—but this one was about to become a phenomenon.
Critics loved it. Reviewers marveled at how seamlessly Seuss had crafted a compelling story within such tight limits. By 1967, Green Eggs and Ham was the best-selling children’s book in America.
What made it so special? Besides its catchy rhythm and unforgettable characters, the book cleverly flips the typical parent-child dynamic. Instead of an adult urging a child to “just try it,” the persistent Sam-I-Am goes to hilarious lengths to get someone—anyone!—to taste those questionable green eggs and ham. Though Seuss insisted the book had “no deeper meaning” beyond the original bet, it became the first of his Beginner Books to quietly deliver a lesson about open-mindedness.
Readers and teachers have continued to adore it. In a 1999 National Education Association poll of favorite children’s books, kids ranked Green Eggs and Ham third, teachers fourth—and teachers ranked it fourth again in 2007.
The book has inspired plenty of fanfare over the years. Dartmouth students joked the title referenced cafeteria food. When Seuss received an honorary doctorate from Princeton in 1985, the graduating class recited the entire book to him. And throughout his life, he was inundated with green eggs and ham–themed gifts, which he called “deplorable stuff”—though he admitted Green Eggs and Ham was the only one of his books that still made him laugh.
The story has since leapt from page to screen, appearing in a 1973 animated special and a Netflix series in 2019, followed by a second season in 2022.
Today, with over 17 million copies sold, Green Eggs and Ham stands as Dr. Seuss’s most popular book and the fourth best-selling hardcover children’s book in U.S. history.
Not bad for a $50 bet.