Shel Silverstein

Sheldon Alan "Shel" Silverstein (September 25,1930 – May 10,1999) was an American poet, songwriter, musician, composer, cartoonist, screenwriter, and author of children's books. He was also known as "Uncle Shelby."Silverstein claimed he never studied the poetry of others, and therefore developed his own style. His style was laid-back and conversational, occasionally employing profanity and recent slang. He wrote with an unaffected, un-self-conscious manner that kept attention focused on the subject matter, not the language. Silverstein believed that written works needed to be read on paper, and with the correct paper for the work. He usually would not allow his poems or stories to be published unless he could choose the type, size, shape, and color of the paper himself. Being himself a book collector, he took the feel and look - the paper, the type, the binding - of his titles very seriously. He did not allow his books to be published in paperback, but this doesn't seem to have affected his popularity: his books sold at least 14 million copies.

Biography

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Silverstein's talents were already well-developed by the time he served in the US armed forces. Silverstein was stationed in Japan and Korea in the 1950s, and while in the military, he was a cartoonist for the Pacific edition of the military newspaper, Stars and Stripes. After serving in the military, Silverstein became a writer, photographer, cartoonist for Playboy in 1956 (and ended up living in the Playboy Mansion for an extended period of time), but he is best known for writing and illustrating his children's literature including The Missing Piece, A Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Falling Up and The Giving Tree. For adults he wrote Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book, a satirical mock children's book, and created Different Dances, a coffee table book of wordless, adult-themed cartoons. He continued to write colloquial poetry on occasion throughout his life, including a rap version of Shakespeare's Hamlet that was published (on yellow-beige specialty paper) in Playboy magazine in 1998. He also co-wrote the screenplay Things Change with David Mamet,

In 2005, Silverstein's last book, entitled Runny Babbit: a Billy Sook, was published posthumously. As the title suggests, every poem and illustration in the book consists of spoonerisms.

As a Songwriter

Silverstein's passion for music was clear early on as he studied for a while at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. As a songwriter, Silverstein kept a low profile but cast a long shadow. He tended to shun publicity and even photographers. Nonetheless, his musical output included many songs which were hits for other artists. Most notably, he wrote the music and lyrics for "A Boy Named Sue" that was performed by Johnny Cash (for which he won a Grammy in 1970); "One's On the Way" (which was a hit for Loretta Lynn), and "The Unicorn Song"; which, despite having nothing to do with Ireland nor Irish culture, became the signature piece for The Irish Rovers in 1968 and is popular in "Irish pubs" all over the world to this day. He wrote the lyrics and music for most of the Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show songs, including "Cover of the Rolling Stone", "Freakin' at the Freakers' Ball", "Sylvia's Mother" and the cautionary song about VD, "Don't Give a Dose To the One You Love Most." He also wrote many of the songs performed by Bobby Bare, including "Marie Laveau", "Rosalie's Good Eats Cafe", "The Mermaid", "The Winner", and "Tequila Sheila". The song "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan", recorded in 1979 by Marianne Faithfull and later featured in the films Montenegro and Thelma & Louise, was also by Silverstein. He was nominated for an Oscar for his music for the film Postcards from the Edge. He also composed original music for several other films, and displayed a musical versatility in these projects, playing guitar, piano, saxophone and trombone.

Silverstein also had a popular following on Dr. Demento's radio show. Among his most popular songs were, "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout (Would Not Take The Garbage Out)", "The Smoke Off" (a tale of a contest to determine who could roll - or smoke - marijuana joints faster) and "I Got Stoned And I Missed It". He also wrote "A Boy Named Sue, Part 2", in which he tells the story from the original song, but from the father's point of view.

Silverstein was posthumously inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.

Personal Life

Shel had two children. With Susan Hastings he had daughter Shoshanna (Shanna), born June 30, 1970. Shoshanna's mother Susan died just 5 years later on June 29, 1975, in Baltimore, Maryland. Shanna's aunt and uncle, Curtis and Meg Marshall, raised Shanna from the age of five until her own death of a cerebral aneurysm in Baltimore on April 24, 1982 at the age of eleven. Shanna was attending the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore at the time of her death. Shel dedicated his 1983 reprint of Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros to the Marshalls. "It was the single most devastating event of his life, and he never really did recover from it", says a close friend. Had Shanna lived, she would have been 29 at the time of Shel's death. A Light in the Attic was dedicated "to Shanna," and Shel had drawn the sign with a flower attached. Shoshanna means "rose" in Hebrew.

Shel's other child is son Matthew, born in 1984. Matthew's mother is Sarah. Shel's 1996 Falling Up was dedicated to Matt.Shel Silverstein died on May 10, 1999 in Key West, Florida of a heart attack.

Books

*1960 - Now Here's My Plan
*1961 - Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book
*1961 - A Playboy's Teevee Jeebies
*1963 - (Uncle Shelby's story of) Lafcadio, The Lion Who Shot Back
*1964 - A Giraffe and a Half
*1964 - The Giving Tree
*1964 - Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros?
*1964 - Uncle Shelby's Zoo
*1965 - More Playboy's Teevee Jeebies
*1974 - Where the Sidewalk Ends
*1976 - The Missing Piece
*1979 - Different Dances
*1981 - A Light in the Attic
*1981 - The Missing Piece Meets the Big O
*1996 - Falling Up
*2005 - Runny Babbit (published posthumously)

Albums

*1959 - Hairy Jazz (Elektra Records)
*1962 - Inside Folk Songs (Atlantic Records)
*1965 - I'm So Good That I Don't Have To Brag (Cadet Records)
*1967 - Drain My Brain (Cadet Records)
*1969 - A Boy Named Sue And Other Country Songs (RCA Records)
*1972 - Freakin' At The Freaker's Ball (Columbia Records)
*1973 - Crouchin' On The Outside (Janus Records), collection of "I'm So Good..." and "Drain My Brain"
*1978 - Songs & Stories (Parachute Records)
*1980 - The Great Conch Train Robbery (Flying Fish Records)
*1984 - Where The Sidewalk Ends (Columbia Records)
*1985 - A Light In The Attic (Columbia Records)

Shel Silverstein also recorded a slew of unreleased songs. Some of these were found at A&R Recording studio in New York but never officially released although bootleg albums of these exist. These songs are generally more vulgar than his other material. Most of these have been speculated to have been recorded around 1969-1970 although they resemble the Songs & Stories musical and lyrical style.

External links

*Shel Silverstein's site
*Mailing list for those interested in the life and works of Shel Silverstein, and discussing those subjects
*Shel Silverstein's Adult Works
*The Shel Silverstein Archive
*Shel Silverstein on Poets.org Biography, poems, and related essays from the Academy of American Poets
*Silverstein bibliography
*Shel Silverstein at the Notable Names Database
*Silverstein's music

German Sites
*Die überdrehte Welt des Shel Silverstein. Leben, Lieder und Texte eines Multitalents (ORF, Spielräume vom 28. Mai 2006)
*Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show & Shel Silverstein Pop-Alphabet
*Weinend am Telefon. Zum Tod von US-Multitalent Shel Silverstein ("Der Standard", 12./13. Mai 1999)
*Zum 75. Geburtstag des Kinderbuchautors und Songwriters Shel Silverstein (Wiener Zeitung, Extra vom 23. September 2005)