Shel Silverstein Died on May 8, 1999

The Life of Shel Silverstein
Sheldon Alan "Shel" Silverstein (September 25, 1930–May 8, 1999) was an American poet, songwriter, musician, composer, cartoonist, screenwriter, and author of children's books. He sometimes styled himself as Uncle Shelby, especially for his early children's books.

Silverstein confirmed he never studied the poetry of others and, therefore, developed his own quirky style: laid-back and conversational, occasionally employing profanity and slang. Silverstein had been writing and drawing since early adolescence, and had developed his own writing style because he would not read work from other writers. After graduating from Theodore Roosevelt High School several months before his class, he attended the University of Illinois, however he was expelled for failing grades in 1949. Shortly after, he began attending Roosevelt University, and graduated from there in 1953 with a bachelor's degree. Shortly after he graduated, he was drafted into the Army.

Silverstein was stationed in Kyoto, Japan and South Korea, and during his tour, he worked as cartoonist for the Pacific military newspaper Stars and Stripes, and had worked alongside and befriended Don Carpenter, who would later become a novelist and screenwriter. He served in the Army for two years until he was honorably discharged in 1955.

Silverstein's passion for music was clear early on as he studied briefly at Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University He is remembered as one of the greatest songwriters of our time. As such, Silverstein tended to shun publicity and even photographers. Nonetheless, his musical output included an astounding catalog of songs. A great number of which were huge hits for other artists - most notably the rock & roll group Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show (later shortened to just Dr. Hook).

He wrote the music and lyrics for "A Boy Named Sue" (which was performed by Johnny Cash and for which Silverstein won a Grammy in 1970), Tompall Glaser's highest-charting solo single "Put Another Log on the Fire," "One's on the Way" (which was a hit for Loretta Lynn), and "The Unicorn" (which, despite having nothing to do with Ireland nor Irish culture, became the signature piece for the Irish Rovers in 1968 and is popular in Irish pubs all over the world to this day). Another Silverstein-penned song recorded by Cash is "25 Minutes to Go," sung from the point of view of a man facing his last 25 minutes on Death Row, with each line of the song counting down one minute closer. He wrote the lyrics and music for most of the Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show songs, including "The Cover of the 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." He also wrote many of the songs performed by Bobby Bare, including "Rosalie's Good Eats Café," "The Mermaid," "The Winner," "Tequila Sheila," and co-wrote with Baxter Taylor the song "Marie Laveau," for which the songwriters received a BMI Award in 1975. "The Mermaid" was also covered in 2005 by Great Big Sea, which released its version on the album The Hard and the Easy. Further famous songs that Shel Silverstein wrote were "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan," (first recorded by Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show in 1975) which was re-recorded in 1979 by Marianne Faithfull and later featured in the films Montenegro and Thelma & Louise and "Queen of the Silver Dollar," (first recorded by Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show in 1973) which appeared on Emmylou Harris's 1975 album Pieces of the Sky, later covered by Dave & Sugar as well as Doyle Holly in 1973. Shel was nominated for an Oscar for his music for the film Postcards from the Edge. He also composed original music for several other films and displayed a musical versatility in these projects, playing guitar, piano, saxophone, and trombone.

Bibliography

Grab Your Socks! (1956)
Now Here's My Plan (1960)
Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book (1961)
A Playboy's Teevee Jeebies oh la la (1961)
(Uncle Shelby's story of) Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back (1963)
A Giraffe and a Half (1964)
The Giving Tree (1964)
Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros? (1964)
Uncle Shelby's Zoo (1964)
More Playboy's Teevee Jeebies (1965)
Where the Sidewalk Ends (1974)
The Missing Piece (1976)
Different Dances (1979)
A Light in the Attic (1981)
The Missing Piece Meets the Big O (1981)
Falling Up (1996)
Draw a Skinny Elephant (1998)
Runny Babbit (2005) (published posthumously)
Don't Bump the Glump! and Other Fantasies (2008, originally published in 1964)

Silverstein believed that written works needed to be read on paper—the correct paper for the particular work. He usually would not allow his poems and stories to be published unless he could choose the type, size, shape, color, and quality of the paper himself. Being a book collector, he took seriously the feel of the paper, the look of the book from the inside and out, the typeface for each poem, and the binding of his books. He did not allow his books to be published in paperback because he did not want his work to diminish in any way.

The Death of Shel Silverstein
Shel Silverstein died sometime during the weekend of May 8, 1999, in Key West, Florida, of a heart attack. His body was found by two housekeepers the following Monday, May 10. It was reported that he could have died on either day that weekend.