Dr Seuss publisher dies aged 90

Dr Seuss, seen here in a stamp, wrote more than 40 books

Writer and actress Phyllis Cerf Wagner, who published many books by children's author Dr Seuss has died, aged 90.

Wagner met Seuss, whose real name was Theodor Geisel, when she joined a New York advertising agency in 1939.

The pair collaborated on books such as The Cat in the Hat Comes Back and Green Eggs and Ham after Wagner founded the Beginner Books imprint at Random House.

She died at a New York hospital on Friday following complications from a fall in her home, according to her son.

Raised in Oklahoma, Wagner was persuaded to move to Hollywood by her cousin, actress and dancer Ginger Rogers.

She appeared in several films, scoring small parts in 1934's Little Men and 1938's Vivacious Lady.

Her biggest role was in the 1936 Western Winds Of The Wasteland, in which she starred opposite John Wayne.

'Proud achievement'

However, her acting career soon floundered and she moved to New York, where she joined the McCann Erickson advertising agency and began writing radio soap operas.

It was here that she met Dr Seuss, who was working as an illustrator.

Year later, after he achieved success with the first Cat In The Hat book, Wagner persuaded Seuss to join her Beginner Books imprint.

"The thing that always made her proudest was those books that helped so many children learn to read," said her eldest son Christopher.

Wagner was also a fixture of the New York social scene and, due to her appearances on the TV panel show What's My Line, a household name in the US.

Household hints

She married Bennett Cerf, the founder of book publisher Random House, in 1940 and the couple remained together until he died in 1971.

Cerf encouraged his wife to remain professionally active, and during their marriage she wrote a celebrity column for the newspaper Newsday, a household hints column for Good Housekeeping magazine, and photographed authors for Random House book jackets.

The couple had two sons, Christopher, a Grammy-award winning Sesame Street composer, and Jonathan, who was at one time the world champion at the board game Othello.

In 1975, Wagner got married for a second time to former New York mayor Robert F Wagner, who soon after was appointed as President Jimmy Carter's ambassador to the Vatican.

They remained married until his death from a heart attack in 1991.