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The Many Talents of Shel Silverstein

© Erica Davis

Shel Silverstein is easily one of the most successful and recognizable children’s authors of our time. He passed away in 1999, but he left behind a huge amount of work for us to enjoy. Although he was the most renowned for his children’s poetry, and such books as “A Light in the Attic,” and “Where The Sidewalk Ends,” Shel Silverstein was also a prolific adult writer, songwriter, and playwright. In fact, he wrote over 800 songs, and composed the score to “Postcards From The Edge,” starring Debbie Reynolds and Meryl Streep, which garnered him an Oscar nomination.

Shel Silverstein won numerous awards for his children’s poetry. His first book, “The Giving Tree,” was initially rejected by editors, because it they felt it was not clearly children’s literature, and it was not clearly adult literature. It was eventually published, and along with all of Silverstein’s other books, was a critical and financial success.

What continues to make his books so popular? They appeal to many different ages and people. Children enjoy reading the silly poems, that rhyme and tell funny stories. Teachers use them as tools to help kids learn how to read. The poems work as instruments for teaching nouns, memorization, phonics, and basic knowledge of poetry composition. Grades 2-5 benefit from these types of exercises, and Silverstein’s work has become a staple in American classrooms.

Before public schools caught on to Silverstein, children everywhere began to fall in love with his poetry. Shel Silverstein has just as strong of a presence in children’s American literature today that Dr. Seuss and Judy Blume have. There were very few poems that I liked to read as a child, and even today am not a big poetry reader, but Shel Silverstein was one of the two books of poetry I ever owned and enjoyed when I was young.

Many readers of Silverstein would be surprised to know how much adult literature he wrote, and where it was published. Before he began writing for children, Shel Silverstein wrote successfully for many years as an adult writer. He began as a cartoonist in the military and after he was discharged went on to be published in “Playboy” numerous times. Many of these stories and cartoons looked similar to his children’s work, but had obvious differences. While the caricatures might have looked the same, the comments were different. For example, in one cartoon titled “Children” Silverstein wrote, “Do I love children? Yes, I do! Boiled, broiled or in a stew!” Readers who enjoyed his animal poems might rethink some of those lines after seeing another

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