A Shel of a Man

Lisa Rogak, Shel Silverstein’s soon-to-be-unauthorized-biographer, has written a nice overview of his body of work and how he always managed to do everything on his own terms, even if others may not have been aware of it:

Silverstein’s

status as a cultural icon wasn’t secured until Reagan-era Democrats

discovered his books. They welcomed him with open arms; after all, this

was clearly the work of a man whose mind worked differently from most

of ours, work that appealed in equal amounts to kids and grownups.

However, the question begs to be asked: If those neocon parents — the

first generation to latch onto the idea of aiming a stereo speaker (or

arranging Walkman headphones) to blast “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” at the

belly of a pregnant woman — knew the truth about the private life of

Shel Silverstein, would they have still bought his books by the

millions?

Maybe, maybe not, but considering that the same publisher who put out his books of children — HarperCollins — also released a compendium of “more adult” cartoons, DIFFERENT DANCES in 1979, just as his popularity as a children’s writer was starting to really grow, I’d say there wasn’t much teeth-gnashing about his disparate interests. And as for his private life, I daresay if buyers had “known the truth,” they might have been more inclined to buy his children’s books…

Somewhat coincidentally, my own take on Shel’s latest effort, RUNNY BABBIT, appears over at Popmatters.