Shel Silverstein’s Life and Work
To start with, Sheldon Allan Silverstein also known as Shel Silverstein was an author, writer, cartoonist, poet, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, and screenwriter; he was even nominated for an Oscar because of his song “A boy named Sue” performed by Johnny Cash ("Shel Silverstein Biography"). Silverstein started his career in the U.S. Army while he worked at a magazine company writing poems and songs (“Shel Silverstein Biography”). Later on, Silverstein became a children’s author and his books were among the most beloved by children, the most famous being “The Giving Tree” (“Shel Silverstein Essay - Silverstein, Shel - ENotes.com”). Written with a specific purpose …show more content…
Throughout most of Silverstein’s poems, there is a repeated theme of moral lessons that the audience, the readers could learn valuable lessons from which is a big significance in these themes; he also uses objects to symbolize meaningful aspects of life and how to handle difficult situations ("Shel Silverstein Facts"). Even though Silverstein hasn’t really influenced any popular poets, in particular, he had influenced and encouraged both adults and children with his poems. More importantly, no other writers have influenced Silverstein, and he said he was glad for this because he was able to create his own personal writing style, not from anyone else’s style ("Shel Silverstein Facts"). Silverstein was influenced by his time spent in Japan and Korea, serving in the army and at the same time, working for a newspaper company called Pacific Stars and Stripes, later on, he worked for Playboy, where he built the foundation for his later poems, writing very humorous stories as a cartoonist ("Shel Silverstein Biography: Author, Illustrator, Poet, Songwriter (1930-1999)"). Afterward, when Ursula Nordstrom from Harper and Row editor convinced Silverstein to write for children, he became one of the most famous children’s authors, she was a big help for his success, because he was truly inspiring to children even to this day, with his creative imagination, he was very influential about solving problems in a funny and relatable way that is easy to understand (“Shel Silverstein”). To close, many things had a huge impact on Shel Silverstein’s life from people, places, and