I find Shel Silverstein's Poetry and his song lyrics both in chilren's and adult forms to be very interesting and quite thought provoking. What I have done here is packaged all of his work that I have into one hefty rar file. This should give anyone who downloads it an insight into the mind of this very intelligent and intricate man. I hope you enjoy and can get a chuckle or two out of his work. I know that over the years of collecting his work I have. The rest of the text came from Wikipedia and as usual they deliver the goods. Thanks to the original author.
Sheldon Allan "Shel" Silverstein (September 25, 1930 – May 10, 1999), was an American poet, singer-songwriter, cartoonist, screenwriter, and author of children's books. He styled himself as Uncle Shelby in some works. Translated into more than 30 languages, his books have sold over 20 million copies.
Personal life
Shel Silverstein was born into a Jewish family. He attended Roosevelt High School and, later, the University of Illinois, from which he was expelled. He then attended Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and Roosevelt University for three years, until 1953 when he was drafted into the United States Army. He served in Japan and Korea. He had one daughter, Shoshanna Jordan Hastings, born June 30, 1970, with Susan Taylor Hastings of Sausalito, California.[3] Susan died on June 29, 1975, one day before Shoshanna's fifth birthday,[4] and Shoshanna died April 24, 1982,[5] at age 11, of a cerebral aneurysm. He also had a son named Matthew, born November 10, 1984, with Sarah Spencer of Key West, Florida; Sarah drove the conch train and inspired Shel's song "The Great Conch Train Robbery." On May 10, 1999, Silverstein died at age 68 of a massive heart attack in Key West. He is buried in Westlawn Cemetery in Norridge, Illinois.
Children's books
Silverstein's editor at Harper & Row, Ursula Nordstrom, encouraged Silverstein to write children's poetry. Silverstein said that he never studied the poetry of others and therefore developed his own quirky style, laid back and conversational, occasionally employing profanity and slang. In a 1975 Publishers Weekly interview, he was asked how he came to do children's books:
He is a strong, well-muscled, fit-looking man who wears blue jeans and a big cowboy hat. Though he has to be into his 40s (he's a Korean War veteran), he is also totally in touch with the contemporary scene... How, an author-illustrator alone. Asked if he would change something he had produced on an editor's say-so, he answered with a flat "No." But he added: "Oh, I will take a suggestion for revision. I do eliminate certain things when I'm writing for children if I think only an adult will get the idea. Then I drop it, or save it. But editors messing with content? No." Had he been surprised by the astronomical record of The Giving Tree, his biggest seller to date and one of the most successful children's books in years? Another emphatic no. "What I do is good," he said. "I wouldn't let it out if I didn't think it was." It tells of a tree and the use a man makes of it. When he is a boy, he plays in the tree's branches and enjoys its luscious fruit. Later, he courts his love under the tree and uses some of its wood to build a house for his family. Years pass; the man is now old and alone. The tree lets him take its trunk to carve a boat from, and the man rows away. Finally he returns for the last time to sit and rest on the stump of the tree—all that's left of it. But The Giving Tree, which has been selling steadily since it appeared almost 10 years ago and has been translated into French, is not his own favorite among his books. "I like Uncle Shelby's ABZ, A Giraffe and a Half, the sophisticated and the simple.
Otto Penzler, in his crime anthology Murder for Revenge (1998), commented on Silverstein's versatility:
“ The phrase "Renaissance man" tends to get overused these days, but apply it to Shel Silverstein and it practically begins to seem inadequate. Not only has he produced with seeming ease country music hits and popular songs, but he's been equally successful at turning his hand to poetry, short stories, plays, and children's books. Moreover, his whimsically hip fables, beloved by readers of all ages, have made him a stalwart of bestseller lists. A Light in the Attic, most remarkably, showed the kind of staying power on the New York Times chart—two years, to be precise—thought that most of the biggest names (John Grisham, Stephen King and Michael Crichton) have never equaled for their own blockbusters. His unmistakable illustrative style is another crucial element to his appeal. Just as no writer sounds like Shel, no other artist's vision is as delightfully, sophisticatingly cockeyed. One can only marvel that he makes the time to respond so kindly to his friends' requests. In the following work, let's be glad he did. Drawing on his characteristic passion for list making, he shows how the deed is not just in the wish but in the sublimation. ”
This anthology was the second in a series, which also included Murder for Love (1996) and Murder and Obsession (1999). All three anthologies included Silverstein contributions. He did not really care to conform to any sort of norm, but he did want to leave his mark for others to be inspired by, as he told Publishers Weekly:
I would hope that people, no matter what age, would find something to identify with in my books, pick up one and experience a personal sense of discovery. That's great. I think that if you're creative person, you should just go about your business, do your work and not care about how it's received. I never read reviews because if you believe the good ones you have to believe the bad ones too. Not that I don't care about success. I do, but only because it lets me do what I want. I was always prepared for success but that means that I have to be prepared for failure too. I have an ego, I have ideas, I want to be articulate, to communicate but in my own way. People who say they create only for themselves and don't care if they are published... I hate to hear talk like that. If it's good, it's too good not to share. That's the way I feel about my work. So I'll keep on communicating, but only my way. Lots of things I won't do. I won't go on television because who am I talking to? Johnny Carson? The camera? Twenty million people I can't see? Uh-uh. And I won't give any more interviews.
Many of Silverstein's poems for children first appeared in Playboy magazine.
Songs
Ballantine Books published Shel Silverstein's 1956 collection of cartoons from Pacific Stars and Stripes, foreword by Bill Mauldin
Silverstein's passion for music was clear early on as he studied briefly at Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. His musical output included a large catalog of songs; a number of which were hits for other artists, most notably the rock group Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show.[13] He wrote Tompall Glaser's highest-charting solo single "Put Another Log on the Fire", "One's on the Way" (a hit for Loretta Lynn), and "25 Minutes to Go", sung by Johnny Cash, about a man on Death Row with each line counting down one minute closer. Silverstein also wrote one of Johnny Cash's best known hits, "A Boy Named Sue." Other songs co-written by Silverstein include "the Taker" by Waylon Jennings and "On Susan’s Floor” by Gordon Lightfoot and a sequel to "A Boy Named Sue" called: "Father of a Boy Named Sue" which is less known, but he performed the song in the "Johnny Cash show" on television. He also penned a song entitled "F*** 'em" which is lesser known and contained a reference to "f*** children."
He wrote the lyrics and music for most of the Dr. Hook songs, including "The Cover of 'Rolling Stone'", "Freakin' at the Freakers' Ball," "Sylvia's Mother", "The Things I Didn't Say" and a cautionary song about venereal disease, "Don't Give a Dose to the One You Love Most".[13] He wrote many of the songs performed by Bobby Bare, including "Rosalie's Good Eats Café", "The Mermaid", "The Winner", "Warm and Free" and "Tequila Sheila". He co-wrote with Baxter Taylor "Marie Laveau", for which the songwriters received a 1975 BMI Award.
Silverstein's "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan", first recorded by Dr. Hook in 1975, was re-recorded by Marianne Faithfull (1979), Belinda Carlisle (1996), and Bobby Bare (2005) and later featured in the films Montenegro and Thelma & Louise. "Queen of the Silver Dollar" was first recorded by Dr. Hook on their 1972 album Sloppy Seconds, and later by Doyle Holly (on his 1973 album Doyle Holly), Barbi Benton (on her 1974 album Barbi Doll), Emmylou Harris (on her 1975 album Pieces of the Sky) and Dave & Sugar (on their 1976 album Dave & Sugar).
Silverstein composed original music for several films and displayed a musical versatility in these projects, playing guitar, piano, saxophone and trombone. He wrote "In the Hills of Shiloh", a poignant song about the aftermath of the Civil War, which was recorded by The New Christy Minstrels, Judy Collins, Bobby Bare and others. The soundtrack of the 1970 film Ned Kelly features Silverstein songs performed by Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and others.[12]
Silverstein had a popular following on Dr. Demento's radio show. Among his best-known comedy songs were "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout (Would Not Take The Garbage Out)", "The Smoke-Off" (a tale of a contest to determine who could roll—or smoke—marijuana joints faster), "I Got Stoned and I Missed It" and "Stacy Brown Got Two." He wrote "The Father of a Boy Named Sue", in which he tells the story from the original song from the father's point of view, and the 1962 song "Boa Constrictor", sung by a man who is being swallowed by a snake (recorded by the folk group Peter, Paul, and Mary) although it is now better known as a children's playground chant.
A longtime friend of singer-songwriter Pat Dailey, Silverstein collaborated with him on the posthumously released Underwater Land album (2002). It contains 17 children's songs written and produced by Silverstein and sung by Dailey (with Silverstein joining him on a few tracks). The album features art by Silverstein.
He was a friend of Chicago songwriter Steve Goodman, for whom he wrote the final verse of "What Have You Done For Me Lately?" (refusing a songwriting credit for his contribution). Goodman also recorded Silverstein's "Three-Legged Man", as did Ray Stevens.
In 2010, Bobby Bare and his son Bobby Bare Jr produced a CD called Twistable, Turnable Man: A Musical Tribute to the Songs of Shel Silverstein which was released on Sugar Hill Records. Artists covering Silverstein songs include Andrew Bird, My Morning Jacket and Bobby Bare, Jr.[18][19]
Theater
The Rising Sun Performance Company's production of "The Lifeboat is Sinking", from An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein
In January 1959, Look, Charlie: A Short History of the Pratfall was a chaotic off-Broadway comedy staged by Silverstein, Jean Shepherd and Herb Gardner at New York's Orpheum Theatre on Second Avenue in the Lower East Side. Silverstein went on to write more than 100 one-act plays. The Devil and Billy Markham, published in Playboy in 1979, was later adapted into a solo one-act play that debuted on a double bill with Mamet's Bobby Gould in Hell (1989) with Dr. Hook vocalist Dennis Locorriere narrating. Karen Kohlhaas directed An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein, produced by New York's Atlantic Theater Company in September 2001 with a variety of short sketches:
"One Tennis Shoe"—Harvey claims his wife is becoming a bag lady.
"Bus Stop"—Irwin stands on a corner with a "bus stop" sign.
"Going Once"—A woman auctions herself.
"The Best Daddy"—Lisa's daddy shot the pony he got for her birthday.
"The Lifeboat is Sinking"—Jen and Sherwin play a game of Who-Would-You-Save-If—the family was drowning.
"Smile"—Bender plans to punish the man responsible for the phrase "Have a nice day".
"Watch and Dry"—Marianne discovers her laundry hasn't been cleaned.
"Thinking Up a New Name for the Act"—Pete thinks "meat and potatoes" is the perfect name for a vaudeville act.
"Buy One, Get One Free"—Hookers offer a golden opportunity.
"Blind Willie and the Talking Dog"—Blind Willie's talking dog argues they could profit from his talent.
A production of "An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein" was produced by a Hofstra University theater group called, "The Spectrum Players" which was founded by Francis Ford Coppola in 1959. The production used a "victorian sailors on shore leave watching a play" aesthetic and used live rag-time and an MC character not in the script to transition between pieces. The production was directed by Richard Traub of Chicago, IL and starred several of Hofstra's most promising young actors; Nick Pacifico, Amanda Mac, Mike Quattrone, Ross Greenberg, Chelsea Lando, Allie Rightmeyer, and Paolo Perez as the MC.
In December 2001, Shel's Shorts was produced in repertory as two separate evenings under the titles Signs of Trouble and Shel Shocked by the Market Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Signs of Trouble was directed by Wesley Savick, and Shel Shocked was directed by Larry Coen.
Awards
Silverstein's "A Boy Named Sue" won a 1970 Grammy. He was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his song "I'm Checkin' Out" in the film Postcards from the Edge. He was posthumously inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.
Replies
Thank you very much. One of my very favorite characters, both as a poet and songwriter. I was introduced to him simultaneously through his children's books, and his work on the first few Dr. Hook albums. Wonderful!
Thanks Rick