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SHEL
(shell)
Shel
Silverstein: American poet, singer-songwriter, musician,
composer, cartoonist, screenwriter, and author Common
clues: Author Silverstein; Cartoonist Silverstein; Poet
Silverstein; Writer Silverstein; Illustrator Silverstein; “The
Giving Tree” author Silverstein Crossword
puzzle frequency:
4 times a year Frequency
in English language:
42444 / 86800 Video: The
1973 Giving Tree Movie
Sheldon
Allan "Shel" Silverstein (September 25, 1930 –
May 8/9, 1999), was an American poet, singer-songwriter,
musician, composer, cartoonist, screenwriter and author of
children's books. He styled himself as Uncle Shelby in his
children's books. Translated into more than 30 languages, his
books have sold over 20 million copies.
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 the 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.[4][9]
But The Giving Tree, which has been selling steadily since it
appeared ten 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.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Shel_Silverstein".
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