Shel Silverstein

Shel Silverstein (skittlesforlife.glogster.com)

“I myself do not believe in explaining anything.” That’s a quote from the AMAZING Shel Silverstein! He is my hero. I used “Biography Today” books to do my research. I choose Shel Silverstein because he writes amazing books and poetry.

First, Shel Silverstein was born in Illinois. He was born in 1932 in Chicago, Illinois. There isn’t much known about him because he prefers to keep his personal life private, so he never really said anything about his childhood. When he was a kid, he wasn’t good with sports, or a hit with the girls, though he would have preferred it that way. Instead, he would draw and write a lot of the time. He thought he was lucky because he didn’t have anybody to copy off of, or to be impressed by. So he kind of developed his own style of art.

In the early 50s he was in the Army. Shel Silverstein first drew cartoons for a publication while in the Army, in the early 50s. While he was stationed in Japan, he began to contribute drawings to the Stars and Stripes, the periodical produced by the armed services. These were published in the magazine in the 1950s. After he got out of the service, Silverstein continued to draw cartoons. He submitted his cartoons to Playboy, which published his work and where his cartoons continued to appear. He also started writing country and rock songs. He wrote a song for Johnny Cash called “A Boy Named Sue”. The song won 1 Grammy in the year 1969. He had never planned on writing children’s books. One of His friends as he put it “Practically dragged me kicking and screaming into Ursula Nordstorm’s office.” So he was kind of forced into being an author.

The Missing Piece Meets the Big O (osorhan.com)

Some of Shel Silverstein’s career highlights! Silverstein’s first children’s book was Uncle Shelby’s ABZ Book (1961). It was unlike most of the books that were published at that point. The book that established his career as a children’s author was The Giving Tree. It is a simple tale, about a tree who sacrifices everything for the boy she loves. He is perhaps best known as a poet for kids. His first book with children’s poems was Where the Sidewalk Ends, published in 1974.

“I will not play tug o' war. I'd rather play hug o' war. Where everyone hugs instead of tugs, where everyone giggles and rolls on the rug, where everyone kisses, and everyone grins, and everyone cuddles, and everyone wins”, quote by Shel Silverstein. That is probably my favorite quote by Shel Silverstein. There is very little known about him, he prefers to keep his personal life private. He was socially awkward in school, he was never really popular, or a hit with the girls. But he was artistic. He was in the Army, and published some of his first work in the periodical. After the Army he kept publishing but to other magazines. Then he became a children’s author. He never planned on being a children’s author, but he ended up continuing his career.