In the evenings , around close fourth dimension , a man with a very bald head and a very dark beard used to come squish into theMysterious BookshopinNew York City , his shoulder hump as though guard off a perpetual moth-eaten jazz . The proprietor , Otto Penzler , had occur to expect these visits . Indeed , he looked onwards to them . He closed up the shop and pass the man back to his intimate holy , a book - lined subject field with floor - to - ceiling ledge .
There , the bearded man would have a bundle of paper containing a fresh , impudently write mystery story to be added to the anthology that Penzler was publishing . The writer refused to take any money for his feat , even though Penzler was paying well . He thirst a different compensation . His eyes glimmer as Penzler slid his payment across the desk between them . It was a stack of used book of account carry heaps of stories written in the secret genre . Later that dark , he would devour them one by one .
Then Penzler and the bearded man would speak . And talk . They talked about books , about lifetime . Otto Penzler was just recovering from a devastating breakup and so they speak about that at length . In a late earphone interview for this article , Penzler remember that at a certain occasion , his invitee say something so piercingly insightful and eloquent about the separation that it took his intimation away . " I wish , " enunciate Penzler , " that I could think back what he said , but I failed to write it down . What I do remember is that when I express my amazement at his facility with words , he just shrug and enunciate , ' I reckon that ’s why they call me a poet . ' "
He could have added , " among many other things , " because Shel Silverstein , famously bald-headed and bearded , was a dependable Renaissance human race . Of course , many of us , perchance most of us , know him as the author and illustrator of " The Giving Tree , " " A Light in the Attic " and " Where the Sidewalk Ends " among many of the other wildly successful books he wrote and drew for tiddler . But that ’s only the backsheesh of the proverbial iceberg . Silverstein also drew cartoon and write plays for adults and penned numerous songs , especially Country songs . In fact , he won twoGrammysfor his songwriting , one of them for the Johnny Cash collision , " A son Named Sue . "
Silverstein’s Beginnings
Sheldon Allan " Shel " Silverstein was born into a Judaic family inChicago in 1930 . His father ran a bakeshop , which only began to thrive in the wake of the Great Depression . After high school , he spent some fourth dimension take at the Art Institute of Chicago and later at Roosevelt University , but was draft into the U.S. Army . Serving in Korea and Japan , Silverstein begin working for the military periodical The Stars and Stripes , and it was there thathe began on a regular basis publishing his idiosyncratic cartoons . After his military inspection and repair , Silverstein got a job as a cartoonist for the fledgling magazine , Playboy . For his Playboy gig , he travel the world , place cartoon dispatches from far and wide .
In 1963 , Silverstein conform to book editor Ursula Nordstrom , who prod him into authorship books for children , and that same year he publish " The Giving Tree , " a book about the nature of altruism and selfishness , that would become his most famous and democratic work . His sense of the preposterous , and the whimsical cartoon line of work drawings that illustrated this and all of his books , would become his hallmark . His splendidly looping signature tune is experience worldwide . In deceptively childlike spoken communication , his geographic expedition of the innocence and imagination of puerility made him one of the most famed and wide read authors for generation of children and adults alike .
Otto Penzler recall Silverstein recite him that he spend a year living at the Playboy mansion as a guest of Hugh Hefner . It was there that he metSusan Hastingswith whom he had a girl name Shoshanna in 1970 . Tragically , Susan died in 1975 , and Shoshanna buy the farm away unexpectedly after suffering acerebral aneurysm in 1982 . By many account , her death perfectly devastate Silverstein . In 1984 , he had a boy named Matthew with Sarah Spencer .
allot to Penzler , Silverstein was a profoundly eccentric man . " For instance , it was n’t unusual for him to be having dinner in a restaurant with a group of friends , and then suddenly announce that he was done , get up , take a taxi to the airport and fly to Chicago , or Los Angeles or Florida or wherever he feel like go on the spur of the minute . "
Shel Silverstein croak of a eye - attack in 1999 at the age of 68 . In report , song and image , he left behind a remarkably fertile artistic record . It ’s hard to consider of anyone who rivals him for the sheer diverseness and success of his creative output .
