Shel Silverstein was born in Chicago in 1932.He was a poet, writer and artist.
Shel Silverstein is best known for his books for children. However, people of all ages like his poems and stories. His first children's book came out in 1963.It is called Lafcadio, The Lion Who Shot Back. It is about a lion that eats hunters and lives like a human.
One year later, his book The Giving Tree came out. It may be his most popular book. This story is about a boy and a tree that loves him. The tree gives the boy everything until it can give no more. Both adults and children have enjoyed reading this book.
Shel Silverstein is also famous for his poetry. His first children's poetry book is Where the Sidewalk Ends. It was published in 1974. It has more than one hundred poems and many drawings. The poems and drawings are creative, funny and wise. In the book, readers meet a boy who turns into a television set and a girl who eats a whale.
In the 1980s, Shel Silverstein began writing plays. He wrote about twenty of them. His first play is called The Lady or the Tiger Show.
Shel Silverstein once said that he wanted to go everywhere and look at and listen to everything. He said people could go crazy with the wonderful things in life. And he communicated this in all of his writings and drawings. He died of heart failure in 1999.
