Silverstein, Shelby

▪ 2000

“Shel” 

      American cartoonist, children's author, poet, songwriter, and playwright (b. Sept. 25, 1932, Chicago, Ill.—d. May 10, 1999, Key West, Fla.), created light verse and quirky, uncanny cartoons that delighted readers by blending innocence and imagination, mischief, a touch of the macabre, and occasional lessons in morality or hygiene. Among his instantly famous characters were the protagonist in Uncle Shelby's Story of Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back (1963), the boy-man and tree in The Giving Tree (1964), the partial circle in The Missing Piece (1976), Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout (who “would not take the garbage out”), the Bloath (who feeds upon poets and tea), Melinda Mae (who ate a whale), Screamin' Millie, and the terrifying Glurpy Slurpy Skakagrall (who's “standing right behind you”). Silverstein, who was often compared to Dr. Seuss, used such locales as the land of Listentoemholler and the castle of Now. His first major collection, Where the Sidewalk Ends (1974), featured the popular title verse:

“There is a place where the sidewalk ends

And before the street begins,

And there the grass grows soft and white,

And there the sun burns crimson bright,

And there the moon-bird rests from his flight

To cool in the peppermint wind.”

      His pictures more than complemented his words. Accompanying “The Edge of the World” is the drawing of a small girl peering over the edge of a ledge so thin that a fire hydrant, a dog, a signpost, and a worm protrude halfway through. The cover of A Light in the Attic (1981) shows a boy with a windowed attic forming the top of his head. The words of another poem form the neck of a giraffe. In the 1950s Silverstein drew for the military magazine Stars and Stripes while serving in Japan and Korea, and he also contributed to Playboy. As a songwriter he made waves in 1968 when the Irish Rovers floated his diluvial fable “The Unicorn” to the top of the charts and again the following year with Johnny Cash's rendition of “A Boy Named Sue.” Less successful were his own raspy recordings on The Great Conch Train Robbery (1980) and other albums. He also penned one-act plays, sometimes working with David Mamet. His last illustrated collection, Flying Up, was published in 1996. Silverstein often eschewed happy endings because children, he said, might otherwise wonder, “Why don't I have this happiness thing you're telling me about?”

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