Sheldon Allan Shel Silverstein

Sheldon Allan "Shel" Silverstein was a man of many hats. The hats were all made up of the arts in which he took taste for. From his cartoons to his folk and country songs. From his very crude and adult work on the stage to doing children's poetry. Shel was not only a man of brilliant talent, but also a bizarre creature unlike of any man. He didn’t start off with talent as a kid however. Shel was born September 25, 1930 in the heart of Chicago, Illinois. As a child he did not possess many talents like the other kids. He never was good at sports, or with girls for that matter. He did attempt to get a talent, like playing guitar so he may impress the girls. The plan did not do so good and gave up on going after girls and he went on to start drawing …show more content…
Along with a adult alphabet book, “ABZ with Uncle Shelby”. Uncle Shelby being his pen name during his first few years of publication. But while he was pumping out his two books, he was very into folk and country ever since he was in college and took a swing at writing and performing the genre. His performance were not very good, however his writing was outstanding. Some of his writing was performed made famous by many people like, Johnny Cash, The Irish Rovers, and Tompall Caster. But it was his children’s poetry that shot him to stardom. Encouraged by Ursula Nonstrume, he was pressured to write a children's book of poetry. He despised children writers as they seemed to be pandering to an audience of literally just toddlers not involving any of the adults (Burns). With this motive encouraging him, he went to prove the world that he can do it. He never actually formally studied anything for writing or poetry in general. So he took a lot of inspiration from himself and the world around him. Most of his work is compiled in the books, “Where the Sidewalk Ends” and “Falling Up”. Some of were reprised of his not so famous songs. Some of his work that he did for Playboy was adapted for the stage. Mostly referred as multiple one act collection. “An Adult Evening with Shel”(Braswell). He had a daughter with Susan Taylor Hastings in 1970, named Shoshanna. Both the mother and daughter did not live long soon after. Shel then married Sarah Spencer and had a son. He promised himself that he would take better care of his son that what he should of done with his daughter. Leaving his wife and daughter behind, Shel passed away in West Key, Florida at the age of 68 from a heart attack