Sheldon Allan Silverstein, better known as Shel Silverstein, was a poet, singer-songwriter, children’s book author, cartoonist, screenwriter, and cartoonist from the United States. He was raised in challenging circumstances for the first few years of his life after being born in Chicago during the Great Depression to an immigrant Jewish family. He began drawing as a young youngster to distract his mind from the problems. He was never successful in school and struggled to fit in until he enrolled at Roosevelt University, where his English professor noticed and encouraged his aptitude. But before he could complete his degree, he was called up to the army and sent to fight in the Korean War. He began creating cartoons while employed by the military publication Pacific Stars and Stripes. After he got back home, he started sending cartoons to several publications. Eventually, he joined Playboy as a cartoonist and traveling reporter and established a reputation in the industry. He gradually developed into a prominent songwriter, owning the rights to more than 800 compositions. About 20 million copies of his children’s books have been sold, and they continue to top bestseller lists after being translated into thirty different languages.
Young Adulthood & Childhood
Shel Silverstein was born on September 25, 1930, in Palmer Square, a working-class part of Chicago, Illinois’s Logan Square neighborhood. His parents, Helen and Nathan Silverstein were both of European ancestry.
First-generation immigrant Nathan Silverstein co-owned the Silverstein Brothers bakery on Walton Street with his older brother, Jack Silverstein. As the company expanded later in 1930, the bakery moved to a bigger location on N. Western Avenue and changed its name to Service Cake Company.
Shel had a sister named Peggy who was four years his junior and was the younger of his parents’ two children. His parents shared a home at 1458 North Washtenaw with Helen’s mother at the time of his birth. They shared a home with her sister and brother-in-law.
Shel was reared in a boisterous environment because he was part of a large family. Throughout the apartment complex, there were numerous loud families. They frequently knocked to check on the family as they stomped up and down the stairs. Another source of the mayhem was the street below.
The Great Depression, which began in 1929, was the main cause of their adversity. By that time, his father had made a significant financial commitment to buy a larger business facility. They soon became aware of the pinch. They primarily had Nathan’s baked goods that were a day old for dinner.
When his sister was born in 1934, the situation deteriorated further. Nathan spent his brief time at home anxious and furious because he had another mouth to feed. Shel has since started to immerse himself in comic comics. He frequently tuned in to radio programs with his mum.
With a significant improvement in his financial status, Nathan relocated his family from his mother-in-house law’s to their own residence at 2853 W. Palmer Street in 1935. Shel started his formal education the same year at Charles R. Darwin Elementary School before transferring to Roosevelt High School in 1944.
Shel was not at all diligent and preferred to draw when at home and in class. His mother supported his artistic endeavors, which caused friction between his parents because his father detested this. He focused more on drawing to avoid such arguments.
Shel developed a love of country music early on and frequently listened to Ernest Tubb on the Grand Ole Opry radio program. His other favorite pastimes included reading, watching White Sox games, and playing the ukulele.
Shel Silverstein enrolled in the University of Illinois in the fall of 1948 and remained there until June 1949, when he was ejected from the school, possibly for failing to adjust. He then enrolled at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, where he once again felt out of place.
He had by this time created his own working method. He had fully formed ideas and resolutely shunned assistance from teachers. He therefore had to depart within a year. In 1950, Silverstein enrolled at Roosevelt University to study English after graduating from the Art School. His first publications, which included cartoons and articles, were in the Roosevelt Torch, a student newspaper, at this time. He also assisted in organizing the paper.
Shel Silverstein was influenced by Robert Cosbey, an English professor at Roosevelt University who strove to foster Shel’s gift after realizing it. Silverstein was drafted into the American Army in 1953, however, and was unable to complete his coursework here.
My beginnings as a Cartoonist
Silverstein was assigned to the Far East after enlisting in the US Army, where he served in Korea and Japan. Here, he was given the responsibility of creating layouts and paste-ups for the military publication Pacific Stars and Stripes. He gradually began to submit cartoons as well.
Despite the sensitive military leaders being offended by several of the cartoons, they were nonetheless published in the newspaper, albeit with considerable censorship. His first book, “Take Ten,” was a compilation of the Take Ten cartoon series he produced during this time and was released in 1955 by Pacific Stars and Stripes.
He returned to Chicago after completing his military service, when he began submitting drawings to publications while also making a living by selling hot dogs in Chicago parks. His drawings slowly started to appear in renowned publications like Look, Sports Illustrated, and This Week.
His big break came in 1956 when Baltimore Books reissued “Take Ten” as “Get Your Socks.” The broader public was introduced to him through the book, and they were quite grateful for it.
Days of Playboy
Hugh Hefner, the publisher of Playboy magazine, introduced Shel Silverstein to him in 1956 and offered him a position as a cartoonist. Hefner, a shrewd cartoon director, let Silverstein be as nasty and racy as he pleased.
By 1957, Silverstein had established himself as Playboy’s top cartoonist thanks to Hefner’s guidance. Success brought increasingly difficult assignments. Hefner is now dispatching him to remote locations both inside and outside of the States to produce an illustrated trip log.
In the course of his travels, Silverstein stopped by the White Sox training camp in Chicago, the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco, the New Jersey nudist colony, etc. Additionally, he traveled to countries in Europe including England, France, and Switzerland as well as places in Africa and Latin America like Cuba and Mexico. He spoke with Fidel Castro in Cuba.
He sent humorously captioned photographs, unconventional artwork, and poetry from the locations he visited, resulting in a total of 23 chapters titled “Shel Silverstein Visits…”. In the process, he developed his own style, which was amusingly outlandish and full of subliminal sadness.
Songwriter, playwright, poet, and singer
While working for Playboy in the late 1950s, Silverstein began to experiment with other forms of creation, such as songwriting and poetry. In 1959, he began singing and recorded his debut album, “Hairy Jazz,” with The Red Onions. He left his imprint even though his voice technique was still evolving at this point.
He started his long involvement with the stage in 1959 as well when he took part in the anarchic comic piece “Look, Charlie: A Brief History of the Pratfall” that was performed off-Broadway. He authored more than a hundred one-act plays after that.
His second book of cartoons, titled “Now Here’s My Plan: A Book of Futilities,” was published in 1960. He had already begun drawing books by then, the most notable of which being John Sack’s “Report from Virtually Nowhere” (1959).
His fourth book, “Uncle Shelby’s ABZ Book,” was published by Simon & Schuster in 1961. It was his first book with unique content for adults, although being based on one of his Playboy features. He also recorded his second album, “Inside Folk Songs,” during this year.
He attempted his hand at children’s fiction by releasing “Uncle Shelby’s Tale of Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back,” encouraged by Ursula Nordstrom, publisher of Harper & Row (1963). He also continued to pursue his musical interests, recording “Shel Silverstein’s Stag Party,” his third album, in the same year.
He published four more novels in 1964: Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros?, A Giraffe and a Half, The Giving Tree, and Uncle Shelby’s Zoo: Don’t Bump the Glump! and Other Fantasies. His best-known piece is “The Giving Tree,” which is one of the quartets.
He released his eleventh book, “More Playboy’s Teevee Jeebies,” in 1965; but, from that point on, he appeared to have focused more on songwriting, releasing seven albums until 1973. One of his biggest hits during this time was “The Unicorn,” which The Irish Rovers made extremely popular in 1968.
He also wrote the hits “A Guy Named Sue,” “One’s on the Way,” “Boa Constrictor,” and “So Good to So Bad.” Although several eminent musicians and ensembles had performed his works, his partnership with the band Dr. Hook was the most fruitful.
Several movies, including “Ned Kelly,” “Who is Harry Kellerman and Why is He Saying Such Horrible Things About Me?” and others featured original music written by Shel Silverstein. (1971). He displayed his flexibility in these ventures by playing a variety of instruments.
He must have continued writing poetry in addition to focusing on writing music. After a hiatus of nine years, one of his biggest works, “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” was finally released in 1974. After then, he kept on writing poetry and songs, leaving his mark in many fields.
His 1981 book of children’s poetry, “A Light in the Attic,” shattered all previous records by spending 182 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Another bestseller from 1996, “Falling Up,” dominated the bestseller rankings for several months.
Silverstein had the copyright to 800 songs in the musical genre, several of which spent months at the top of the charts. Also, he made radio appearances and enjoyed a sizable fan base on Dr. Demento’s program.
Shel’s Significant Works
The most well-known of Silverstein’s works is “A Giving Tree,” which was released in 1964. The novel, which explores a boy’s bond with a tree, has been translated into a number of languages. It was third on a Goodreads list of the “Best Children’s Books” as recently as 2013.
A collection of poems titled “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” which was released in 1974, addresses various issues that affect kids on a regular basis. The book was ranked among the “Teachers Top 100 Books for Children” in a survey conducted by the National Education Association in 2007. In 1983, the audiobook version was published.
He is remembered as a songwriter for his many original compositions, including “The Unicorn,” “A Guy Called Sue,” “On the Hills of Shiloh,” “Put Another Log on the Fire,” “One’s on the Way,” “Hey Loretta,” “I’m Checkin’ Out,” and “25 Minutes to Go,” among others.
Recognition & Achievements
Shel Silverstein won the Grammy for Best Children’s Recording in 1984 for the audiobook adaptation of “Where the Sidewalk Ends.” In 1983, it was made available on cassette, then in 1984, it was made available on vinyl LP.
For the song “I’m Checkin’ Out,” which he had written for the 1990 movie “Postcards from the Edge,” Silverstein was nominated for an Oscar in 1991.
Personal Legacy & Life
About Silverstein’s personal life, little is known. It’s probable that he never legally wed Susan Taylor Hastings of Sausalito, California, but instead they were partners and he was the father of her kid, Shoshanna Jordan Hastings, who was born on June 30, 1970.
Five years after the birth of their daughter, Susan passed away in 1975. On April 24, 1982, Shoshanna also passed away from a brain aneurysm, six years later. She was eleven years old at the time. On November 10, 1984, Silverstein gave birth to a son named Matthew through a relationship with Sarah Spencer, a conch train driver from Key West, Florida. About them, nothing else is known.
According to Lisa Rogak, who wrote his biography, Silverstein placed the highest priority on creation. He would leave anything or anyone that he found unimaginative right away, whether it was a place or a relationship. He never maintained a single residence, moving between houses, cottages, and houseboats.
In his Key West, Florida, residence on May 9 or May 10, 1999, Silverstein passed away from a heart attack. He might have passed away the day before his body was discovered by his housekeepers on May 10. He is interred in Norridge, Illinois’ Westlawn Cemetery. In 2002, he was posthumously inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and in 2014, into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.
Estimated Net Worth
An American author, humorist, cartoonist, composer, musician, and dramatist, Shel Silverstein had a $20 million fortune at the time of his passing. The Giving Tree and Where the Sidewalk Ends are two of Shel Silverstein’s best-known children’s books.