Shel+Silverstein

media type="youtube" key="PN8PfuyowG0" height="344" width="425" Shel Silverstein By Rebecca You might think Shel Silverstein is just a poet but he’s a lot more than that. He was a poet, song writer and author. Also, Shel Silverstein served in the U.S. armed forces during the 1950’s.

Shel Silverstein was born in 1932 in Chicago. Did you know he published eleven poetry books? All his poems rhymed. His poems are funny, friendly, and you can always learn something from them. Shel Silverstein’s poetry books are perfect for kids. He never planned to write or draw for kids until his friend dragged him in to it. Shel learned to love writing and drawing for the poetry books he wrote. The book //The Giving Tree// was rejected from the editor William Clyde. He felt the book fell between adult’s and children’s literature and thought the book would never sell. He was wrong. The book did sell because we wouldn’t have it in our school today if he didn’t published it.

Have you ever wondered what Shel Silverstein’s first poem, story and song were? His first poetry book was //The Giving Tree// published in 1964. Unfortunately, he didn’t get an award for that poetry book.. His first story book was //Uncle Shelby’s Story of Lafcadio the Lion Who Shot Back// published in 1964. His first song was called “A Boy Named Sue” (sung by Jonny Cash) in 1969. His first album was //Freakin ‘at the Freakers Ball// (Columbia in 1972).

Why did Shel Silverstein want to be a poet? He never was good at sports. He would rather have been a good baseball player or have been popular with girls but he knew he could not play base ball, so he started writing. When he started writing he loved it and was great at it! Shel Silverstein did poetry for forty nine years and always loved it!

In addition to his work for children, in 1981 he wrote plays for adults. He was also a cartoonist for the Pacific edition of a military newspaper.

Unfortunately, Shel Silverstein died in 1999 from a heart attack. Although he died we still remember his wonderful stories, poems and songs. No one will ever forget about Shel Silverstein. Works Cited "Shel Silverstein -." __Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More__. 11 May 2009 . "Shel Silverstein Biography." __Yahoo! GeoCities: Get a free web site with easy-to-use site building tools__. 11 May 2009 . Silverstein, Shel. __Missing piece__. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.