Bio+Page+-+Shel+Silverstein+by+Fatu

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ABOUT HIS LIFE:**//Born in Chicago on September 25, 1930, Sheldon Allan Silverstein was very famous for his poems but, didn't brag about it. “When I was a kid,” he told Publishers Weekly in 1975, “I would much rather have been a good baseball player or a hit with the girls. But I couldn’t play ball. I couldn’t dance. So I started to draw and to write. I was lucky that I didn’t have anyone to copy, be impressed by. I had developed my own style.”//** =====

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//** ABOUT HIS WORK:At first Shel Silverstein was interested in drawing, but also learned guitar and started got writing music. He wrote Johnny Cash's Song, "A Boy Named Sue." Tom Ungerer introduced him to Ursula Nordstorm who led him to Childrens Books. In 1964 The connection led to The Giving Tree. **//=====

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//** Shel Silverstein never planned on writing for children. In the early 1960’s Tomi Ungerer, a friend whose own career in children’s books was blossoming, introduced Silverstein to his editor, Harper Collins’ legendary Ursula Nordstrom. That connection led to the publication of The Giving Tree in 1964. The book sold modestly at first, but soon the gentle parable about a boy and the tree that loved him was admired by readers of all ages, recommended by counselors and teachers, and being read aloud from pulpits. Decades after its initial publication, with more than five and a half million copies sold, The Giving Tree holds a permanent spot atop lists of perennial bestsellers. **//=====