Shel Silverstein (25 September, 1930-10 May, 1999) was an American author, poet, cartoonist, and songwriter. His most acclaimed works were the children books he wrote, such as The Giving Tree.
1. Sheldon Allan Silverstein was born and raid in Chicago, IL. His father, Nathan, was a Jewish immigrant from Russia, and his mother Helen, was a Jewish American with a Hungarian heritage. The family ran a bakery.
2. Mr. Silverstein started his career in cartooning. By age seven he was tracing the works of Al Capp. who drew the popular cartoon Lil’ Abner. Mr. Silverstein first published work was in Roosevelt University’s student newspaper, the Roosevelt Torch.
3. After college he was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War, serving both in Japan and Korea. While in the military he worked as a write and cartoonist for the Pacific Stars and Stripes. Later he collected his military cartoons and published them as his first book Take Ten, which was also the title of his cartoon series feature in the paper.
4. Shel Silverstein got his first big break from Hugh Hefner. Mr. Hefner hired him in 1957 as a staff cartoonist. This dream job allowed Mr. Silverstein to draw and travel the world illustrating travelogues for Playboy magazine.
Before the break he was submitting cartoons and selling hot dogs in Chicago.
5. Mr. Silverstein was also a prolific songwriter. His most famous song, among several, is Johnny Cash’s classic hit A Boy Named Sue. He didn’t write only songs, he also composed the music for several movies and was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1991 (the movie was Postcards from the Edge, and the song was I’m Checkin’ Out sung by Meryl Streep).
6. The book Shel Silverstein might be most known for, The Giving Tree, has a tough time getting published. It was thought to be too sad for children, and to simple for adults.
Personally, I thought it’s neither too sad, and certainly not simple.
7. Shel Silverstein hated to write happy endings if they didn’t make sense in the story. He preferred realistic or ambiguous endings because he felt that reading stories with happy endings will make kids feel alienated from real life.
8. The poetry Mr. Silverstein wrote for children is filled with double-entendres and dark humor aimed at the parents reading them to their kids.
9. For a few years, Shel Silverstein lived on a converted WWII tugboat in Sausalito, CA.
10. Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic is dedicated to his daughter, Shoshanna Jordan Hastings, who passed away at age 11 from cerebral aneurysm.
Zohar – Man of la Book
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Sources:
Shel Silverstein | Wikipedia
Shel Silverstein | The Poetry Foundation
