Dr. Seuss wrote “Green Eggs and Ham” on a bet that he couldn’t write a book with 50 or fewer words?
The bet was made in 1960 with Bennett Cerf, the co-founder of Random House, and was for $50 (about $382 today). Despite Dr. Seuss, a.k.a. Theodore Geisel, winning the bet by producing one of his most popular works “Green Eggs and Ham” using exactly 50 unique words, Cerf never paid him. “Green Eggs and Ham” went on to be Geisel’s best selling work, so he made money on it anyways.
Oh, and in case you were wondering what those words are, here is the list:
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.