Shelebration!
The late, great Shel Silverstein is remembered during a tribute concert.
Tue Aug 2 2011
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Photograph: Courtesy Harper Collins
"The Giving Tree"
The Giving Tree, one of Silverstein's most beloved tales, tells the story of a selfless tree that sacrifices itself for a little boy. Since Harper & Row first published the book in 1964, it's sold more than 8 million copies and been translated into 39 languages.
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Photograph: Larry Moyer
Shel Silverstein
Silverstein wrote many songs throughout his life, both for himself and for musicians such as Marianne Faithfull and Dr. Hook. His relationship with Johnny Cash is particularly notable: "A Boy Named Sue" won a Grammy in 1969, and Silverstein performed on The Johnny Cash Show. Silverstein scored another Grammy, for Best Children's Album in 1984, for narrating his own book Where the Sidewalk Ends.
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Photograph: Courtesy Harper Collins
Every Thing On It
Though he died more than a decade ago, new work from the author continues to surface. The latest, Every Thing On It (HarperCollins; out September 20), is a collection of his irreverent, comedic children's poems and illustrations. Family members culled the author's archives for the new material.
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Photograph: Larry Moyer
Silverstein's wry cartoons appeared in Stars and Stripes, a military publication, while he served in the Army during the Korean War. The caricatures impressed the then-spry editor of Playboy, Hugh Hefner, who brought Silverstein on as one of the fledgling magazine's earliest contributors. When Silverstein wasn't hanging around the Playboy Mansion, he was reporting for the magazine from all over the globe; in 2007, Playboy released Around the World, an anthology of his dispatches.
Though Shel Silverstein's children's books have long provided parents and kids alike with comic relief, the writer (who died in 1999) was known for many things beyond Where the Sidewalk Ends. During his lifetime, he worked as a travelogue writer and cartoonist for Playboy (Hugh Hefner dubbed him the magazine's "resident humorist"), a composer and lyricist who wrote hits such as Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue" and a screenwriter whose credits include the 1988 comedy Things Change, a collaboration with David Mamet. "This is a guy who is writing incredibly high-profile children's books and, at the same time, working for Playboy, and creating these songs that are pretty outrageous and yet were still hits," says producer Hal Willner, who is orchestrating a celebration—or rather, a Shelebration—of the multitalented Silverstein on Saturday 6. "[Silverstein has] been loved in every world, from the avant-garde to the mainstream to children's literature to the perverse," Willner explains. "He's a singer, writer, composer, artist, psychopath—it's amazing." The concert will honor Silverstein's literary, musical and artistic pursuits, with interpretations of his work from musicians Bobby Bare Jr. and Pat Dailey (who collaborated with the late poet), as well as Martha Wainwright, Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed. One of the performers will also sing the lesser-known explanation behind Sue's unfortunate name. "There are two sides to every story," says Willner. "The father [in the song] justifies it—the kid was crying too much."
A BOY NAMED SHEL Shelebration! A Tribute to the Works of Shel Silverstein, Central Park SummerStage, Rumsey Playfield, enter at Fifth Ave and 72nd St (212-360-2777, summerstage.org). Sat 6 at 7pm; free.
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