So I get an email every day from NPR called The Writer's Almanac. It gives a poem and then several "this day in history" type things. Today, it said that it was Shel Silverstein's birthday. That he was born on this day in 1932. So I was like, ooh, I like him, I need to do a blog post because he's an author (one of my favorites) to celebrate! Then I went to Wikipedia. And it said that his birthday was 9/25/1930. Uh... what? Further checking says that his birthday was indeed on 9/25, so I went to my Writer's Almanac from 9/25... and surprise! It was his birthday then, too! NPR fail. But... this means we should celebrate Shel Silverstein's birthday once a week apparently. :)
The award-winning cartoonist, poet, essayist, journalist, and composer Shel Silverstein (books by this author) was born on this day in Chicago, Illinois, in 1932. He is perhaps best known for
The Giving Tree, a book that blurs the line between children's fantasy and adult philosophy, and the 1981 poetry collection
A Light in the Attic, which held its place on the New York TimesBestsellers List for more than two years.
Silverstein grew up in a small Midwestern town where, by the age of 12 or 14, he was a lousy baseball player and a flop with girls, but good at drawing and writing. He would later declare that he had been lucky to be relatively unaware of other cartoonists and writers so that instead of copying he developed his own cockeyed style and view of the world. And it turned out to be fortunate that the girls did not want him, because art and writing became his focus, instead of the usual adolescent pursuits.
After high school, Silverstein studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and then Roosevelt University but dropped out in 1953 to join the Army. He served at several American military bases overseas and began producing a series of military-themed cartoons that, following his return to Chicago, would be published as his first book,
Take Ten.
Back in Chicago, Silverstein started submitting cartoons to various magazines, eventually attracting the attention of the editors of
Playboy, who hired him in 1957 as one of their leading cartoonists and sent him to far-flung locations to produce
Around the World, an illustrated travel journal that included trips to Japan, Russia, and Africa, as well as the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, the White Sox training camp, and a nudist colony.
Critics have referred to Shel Silverstein as a Renaissance man — a designation that seems rather appropriate when one considers a record of his work. Not only did he illustrate his own essays and poems, he also produced a large number of plays and comedic stage shows, played numerous instruments and composed dozens of pop and country-western songs, including most of the songs recorded by the rock band Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show. He recorded numerous albums and performed on the Dr. Demento radio show. Silverstein composed Johnny Cash's Grammy-winning single "A Boy Named Sue" and in 2002 was posthumously inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. His book of children's poetry
Where the Sidewalk Ends is one of the best-selling volumes of poetry of all time.
Silverstein believed that written works needed to be read on paper, that there was a correct paper for every particular work, and would select the type, size, shape, color, and quality of paper for his books, refusing to authorize paperback editions for most on the grounds that the work would be diminished. In a 1963 interview in the humor magazine The Aardvark, Silverstein explained that "Craftsmanship is something that's really going out now. The young people have no patience with craftsmanship any more. They think, therefore they am [sic]. It's not enough. You don't think, therefore you are. You do, therefore you are, or else you aren't."
In celebration of his Un-Birthday... here are a few awesome things from Shel Silverstein:
My favorite cover of my favorite song of his:
Another awesome, well-known song he wrote:
And my favorite poem:
"Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony"
There was a girl named Abigail
Who was taking a drive
Through the country
With her parents
When she spied a beautiful sad-eyed
Grey and white pony.
And next to it was a sign
That said,
FOR SALE—CHEAP.
“Oh,” said Abigail,
“May I have that pony?
May I please?”
And her parents said,
“No you may not.”
And Abigail said,
“But I MUST have that pony.”
And her parents said,
“Well, you can have a nice butter pecan
Ice cream cone when we get home.”
And Abigail said,
“I don’t want a butter pecan
Ice cream cone,
I WANT THAT PONY—
I MUST HAVE THAT PONY.”
And her parents said,
“Be quiet and stop nagging—
You’re not getting that pony.”
And Abigail began to cry and said,
“If I don’t get that pony I’ll die.”
And her parents said, “You won’t die.
No child ever died yet from not getting a pony.”
And Abigail felt so bad
That when she got home she went to bed,
And she couldn’t eat,
And she couldn’t sleep,
And her heart was broken,
And she DID die—
All because of a pony
That her parents wouldn’t buy.
- A Light in the Attic
And, because it's worth mentioning... The Giving Tree is one of the best children's books ever written. What were your favorite Shel Silverstein works?
