Shel Silverstein

2 Pages 405 Words

Shel Silverstein began writing when he was twelve years old. He would have preferred to be playing ball with children his age, but he had no athletic ability. Also, girls showed no interest in him, so he began to write. He was not familiar with the style of any famous poets. Since he had no one whom he could mimic, he began devloping his own technique. In the 1950's, Silverstein enlisted in the armed forces and served in the Korean War.

During his time in the military, Shel Silverstein worked as a cartoonist for "Pacific Stars and Stripes," a Pacific-based U.S. military publication. After completing his military duty, he was hired as a staff cartoonist for "Playboy" in 1956. Silverstein contrubuted several poems including "The Winner," "Rosalie's Good Eats Cafe," and "The Smoke-off" (see links below to read some of these) and wrote the books "Playboy's Teevee Jeebies" and "More Playboy's Teevee Jeebies: Do-It-Yourself Dialogue for the Late Late Show." In 1963, at the suggestion of fellow illustrator Tomi Ungerer, he was introduced to Ursula Nordstrom who convinced him to begin writing for children. One of Silverstein's most popular books, "The Giving Tree," was published in 1964. Ironically, just a few years prior, editor William Cole rejected this book, claiming that it would never sell because it fell between the interests of children and adults. In 1974, Shel Silverstein wrote "Where the Sidewalk Ends," which won the New York Times Outstanding Book Award, 1974, and went on to win the Michigan Young Readers' Award, 1981, and the George G. Stone Award, 1984. He wrote "The Missing Piece" in 1976, a non-traditional books
which Silverstein himself sees as being a little "disturbing" because of the unique ending he chose for the book. "A Light In the Attic," a collection of poems and drawings, was published in 1981, and won Best Books, School Library Journal, 1981. This book also won the Buckeye Awards, 1983, and 1985, the George G. S...