Shel Silverstein
Shel Silverstein began writing when he was twelve years old. He would have preferred to be playing ball with children his age, but he had no athletic ability. Also, girls showed no interest in him, so he began to write. He was not familiar with the style of any famous poets. Since he had no one whom he could mimic, he began devloping his own technique. In the 1950s, Silverstein enlisted in the armed forces and served in the Korean War.
During his time in the military, Shel Silverstein worked as a cartoonist for “Pacific Stars and Stripes,” a Pacific-based U.S. military publication. After completing his military duty, he was hired as a staff cartoonist for “Playboy” in 1956. Silverstein contrubuted several poems including “The Winner,” “Rosalies Good Eats Cafe,” and “The Smoke-off” (see links below to read some of these) and wrote the books “Playboys Teevee Jeebies” and “More Playboys Teevee Jeebies: Do-It-Yourself Dialogue for the Late Late Show.” In 1963, at the suggestion of fellow illustrator Tomi Ungerer, he was introduced to Ursula Nordstrom who convinced him to begin writing for children. One of Silversteins most popular books, “The Giving Tree,” was published in 1964. Ironically, just a few
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