Shel Silverstein

Shel Silverstein's most famous short story almost didn't get published. Even though everyone who read it loved it, publishers said it was too short or too long — that it was somewhere in between a children's book and adult literature and wouldn't sell. It wasn't until an editor at Harper Children's Book decided to take the risk that The Giving Tree saw the light of day, and Silverstein's works had a permanent green light.

It wasn't in Shel Silverstein's original plans to write for children. He was an artist, a songwriter, and a playwright in the years before he published his children's poetry collections. His work, The Unicorn Song, was recorded by the Irish Rovers. He co-wrote stage and screen scripts with David Mamet and wrote scripts that were performed at the Lincoln Center and New York.

Shel Silverstein was also a frequent contributor to Playboy. He died of a heart attack in 1999.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

-- B. Redman