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Shel Silverstein, Cartoonist, Author and Creator

© Susanna McLeod

For some reason, I have a soft spot for cartoons. The thick lines or squiggles, the funny gag or serious message, they all catch my attention. There are so many good cartoons that it is difficult for me to choose a particular favourite cartoonist. One artist that does come to mind is the late Shel Silverstein, the dynamic and humourous poet, playwright, musician, composer and of course, cartoonist.

Sheldon Allan Silverstein was born on September 25, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois to parents Nathan and Helen Silverstein. The young Shel was always artistic, drawing and writing at an early age. Developing his own witty style early on, Shel said in 1975, "...I was creating before I knew there was a Thurber, a Benchley, a Price and a Steinberg. I never saw their work till I was around 30." *(1) He graduated from Roosevelt High School about 1948 and put in a year at the University of Illinois before he was "thrown out." He went on to study at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and then at Roosevelt University (Chicago). Shel was drafted into the US Army in September 1953, before he could graduate.

After serving at several American military bases, Shel was shipped overseas to Japan and Korea. There, he joined the Stars and Stripes magazine, where it was said he "began to draw and draw furiously. His cartoons started appearing three times weekly, and they spoke the universal language of soldierdom - he was an immediate success." *(2) Take Ten, a collection of military cartoons, became Shel's first book, published in 1955.

Prolific and varied in his cartooning, Shel submitted adult-style work to Playboy Magazine, which published his first cartoon in the March issue of 1956. In 1957, he began writing several pieces for Playboy including a travel series based on his trips around the world - Africa, Alaska and Hawaii included. His magazine work was published in several books, including Playboy's Teevie Jeebies in 1960 and More Playboy's Teevie Jeebies in 1965.

Apparently not content with "only" magazine work, Shel wrote his first music LP in 1959, entitled, "Hairy Jazz." His musical work lead him to become a contributor and composer of great renown, creating scores for plays and movies, and popular pieces such as "A Boy Named Sue" sung by Johnny Cash, "The Unicorn" for the Irish Rovers and "The Cover of the Rolling Stone" for Dr. Hook. (He was nominated and won numerous Grammies for his efforts.) Shel also wrote a countless number of successful plays for theater.