Shel silverstein biography giving tree

A few weeks ago, rummaging around the Strand, I came across a fiftieth-anniversary edition of Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree.” It had the fern-green cover familiar from childhood, the same oversized dimensions, the same appealing sketch on its front—a squiggly drawing of a tall tree, its top spilling off the page, and a little boy, looking up at it. But instead of experiencing a pleasant rush of nostalgia, I was dismayed. A strange thing happens when we encounter a book we used to love and suddenly find it charmless; the feeling is one of puzzled dissociation. Was it really me who once cherished this book?

The beginning of the story is innocuous enough: a boy climbs a tree, swings from her branches, and devours her apples (I’d never noticed that the tree was a “she”). “And the tree was happy,” goes the refrain. But then time passes, and the boy forgets about her. One day, the boy, now a young man, returns, asking for money. Not having any to offer him, the tree is “happy” to

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Shel Silverstein

(1930-1999)

Who Was Shel Silverstein?

Shel Silverstein studied music and established himself as a musician and composer, writing songs including “A Boy Named Sue,” popularized by Johnny Cash, and Loretta Lynn’s “One’s on the Way.” Silverstein also wrote children’s literature, including The Giving Tree and the poetry collection A Light in the Attic.

Early Career

Born in Chicago, Illinois on September 25, 1930, Shel Silverstein enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1950 and served in Korea and Japan, becoming a cartoonist for Stars & Stripes magazine. After his stint in the Army was up, he soon began drawing cartoons for magazines such as Look and Sports Illustrated, but it was his work for Playboy magazine that began garnering Silverstein national recognition. Silverstein's cartoons appeared in every issue of Playboy, riding the high-point of its popularity, from 1957 through the mid-1970s.

While at Playboy in the 1950s, Silverstein also began e

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The Giving Tree

Children's picture book by Shel Silverstein

For the TV episode, see The Giving Tree (Friday Night Lights). For the American band, see The Giving Tree Band.

The Giving Tree is an American children'spicture book written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein. First published in 1964 bygd Harper & Row, it has become one of Silverstein's best-known titles, and has been translated into numerous languages.

Background

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Silverstein had difficulty finding a publisher for The Giving Tree.^[1][2] An editor at Simon & Schuster rejected the book's manuscript because he felt that it was "too sad" for children and "too simple" for adults.^[1][2]Tomi Ungerer encouraged Silverstein to approach Ursula Nordstrom, who was a publisher with Harper & Row.^[1]

An editor with Harper & Row stated that Silverstein had made the original illustrations "scratchy" like his cartoons for Playboy, but that he later re