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Sheldon Allan Silverstein was born in Chicago, Illinois, on 25 September, 1932.

He started writing at age 12, and was unfamiliar with other poets. Without the greats to study or mimic, he developed his own, unique style. Although truly an artistic renaissance man, it is Silverstein's poems and lyrics that are most widely recognized. He wrote both adult and children's poetry all his life, and was best known as a children's author.

He was also a cartoonist, composer, lyricist, screenwriter, and folksinger. He received many awards in nearly all these areas.

He began his career as a writer and cartoonist for an adult magazine in 1952. While he was in the U.S. Military in Japan and Korea in the 1950s, he was a cartoonist for the military newsletter, Pacific Stars and Stripes. In 1980, he produced a folksong album called The Great Conch Train Robbery. His poem "The Unicorn Song" was recorded by the Irish Rovers. He also wrote the songs, "A Boy Named Sue" (Johnny Cash, 1969), "The Cover of the Rollin' Stone" (Dr. Hook), and "Boa Constrictor," among many others which were performed by famous groups and singers. As a composer, he was nominated for an Academy Award for the song, "I'm Checkin' Out" from the movie Postcards From the Edge. He co-wrote the screenplay for Things Change with David Mamet, and he wrote the play The Lady or the Tiger Show, which was produced at Ensemble Studio Theater's Annual Festival of One Acts.

He never intended to be a children's writer, but his friend Tomi Ungerer took him to Ursula Nordstrom, and she convinced him to write children's books. His prose book, The Giving Tree, which is one of his most successful, was first rejected by William Cole, who thought the book was somewhere in-between adult and children's literature. To Silverstein, it was a story about two people, in which one gives and the other takes. Both adults and children now embrace the book.

Other prose written by Silverstein includes The Missing Piece, Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back, and The Missing Piece Meetsthe Big O, which earned him an International Reading Association's Children's Choices Award.

His most famous children's poetry is found in the books Falling Up, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and A Light in the Attic. A Light in the Attic was recognized as A School Library Journal Best Book, and Where the Sidewalk Ends received a Michigan Young Readers Award. Silverstein illustrated these books himself.

Some of Silverstein's poems can easily be interpreted as macabre, although many of them have much deeper meaning. Silverstein has been compared to Dr. Seuss and A. A. Milne. Although most of Silverstein's serious fans are adults, the poetry is wildly popular with children, who are probably drawn by its rhythm and silly qualities.

Sheldon Allan Silverstein died of a heart attack on May 10, 1999, at the age of 66.

(Note: There seems to be some discrepancy as to whether Silverstein was born in 1930 or 1932. If he was actually born in 1930, his age would have been 68 when he passed away.)

Biography by Alice
Submitted unknown