SHEL SILVERSTEIN
The legendary bookseller Otto Penzler once admitted that Shel Silverstein was the closest modern man he knew who could be defined as a Renaissance Man. Silverstein (1930-1999), Chicago-born and raised, seemed to have experienced, wrote about, illustrated, and pursued everything in his life. Kicked out of the Universit of Illinois, drafted out of the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts into the Army, employed by Playboy Magazine as a travelling commentator on modern society, Silverstein published books of adult cartoons, wrote songs (A Boy Named Sue won a Grammy), wrote screenplays for film and television, stage plays, and somehow, unwillingly, under powerful persuasion by Tomi Ungerer and Ursula Nordstrom, became a children’s book poet/illustrator. His books have sold over 20 million copies. Children love his work, teens love his work, and adults love his work, all for different valid reasons, all for the feeling that he speaks directly to their experience and intuitive grasp that the world is an odd place of danger and humor, joy and tragedy.
I have sold Silverstein since I began working at an independent book store in 1981, when A Light in the Attic was published, his breakthrough book that stormed the publishing world and embarrassed all the bestseller lists. He still makes me laugh, he still moves me, and he still makes me think, all reactions he would — grudgingly — take as worthy tribute.
A Boy Named Shel: The Life and Times of Shel Silverstein
A Boy Named Shel: The Life and Times of Shel Silverstein
Few authors are as beloved as Shel Silverstein. His inimitable drawings and comic poems have become the bedtime staples of millions of children and their parents, but few readers know much about the man behind that wild-eyed, bearded face peering out from the backs of dust jackets.
In A Boy Named Shel, Lisa Rogak tells the full story of a life as antic and adventurous as any of his creations. A man with an incurable case of wanderlust, Shel kept homes on both coasts and many places in between---and enjoyed regular stays in the Playboy Mansion. Everywhere he went he charmed neighbors, made countless friends, and romanced almost as many women with his unstoppable energy and never-ending wit.
His boundless creativity brought him fame and fortune---neither of which changed his down-to-earth way of life---and his children's books sold millions of copies. But he was much more than "just" a children's writer. He collaborated with anyone who crossed his path, and found success in a wider range of genres than most artists could ever hope to master. He penned hit songs like "A Boy Named Sue" and "The Unicorn." He drew cartoons for Stars & Stripes and got his big break with Playboy. He wrote experimental plays and collaborated on scripts with David Mamet. With a seemingly unending stream of fresh ideas, he worked compulsively and enthusiastically on a wide array of projects up until his death, in 1999.
Drawing on wide-ranging interviews and in-depth research, Rogak gives fans a warm, enlightening portrait of an artist whose imaginative spirit created the poems, songs, and drawings that have touched the lives of so many children---and adults.