Shel Silverstein Biography

Born: September 25, 1930

Died: May 10, 1999

Shel was born September 25, 1930 to working class parents, Nathan and Helen Silverstein. He and his sister, Peggy, grew up in the immigrant community of Logan Square in Chicago, Illinois.

As a boy, Shel dreamed of becoming a professional ballplayer for his favorite team, the Chicago White Sox. He spent most of his youth trying to avoid household chores and instead concentrating his efforts on drawing and baseball. It wasn't long before Shel realized that he wasn't a great athlete and he would have to settle for being a devoted fan instead of a ballplayer.

As a teenager, Shel attended Roosevelt High School. Although interested, he was not very popular with the girls. With little athletic talent he hoped the girls would take notice of his artistic talents. Shel spent most of his time drawing pictures. With no real role models or teachers to study art from, Shel had the freedom to develop his own style.

After high school Shel attended University of Illinois, to study art. Due to poor grades, Shel was expelled after one year. He transferred to the Chicago of Fine Arts but lasted only a year there as well. Eventually, he ended up at Roosevelt University, to study English. It was here that Shel was able to put his talents to use, contributing to the student paper, the Torch.

Alas, Shel would be forced to leave college without a degree, yet again. This time Shel was drafted into the Army during the Korean War. Shel would later look at his college years as a waste of time; time that could have been better spent, as he puts it, "traveling around Europe meeting people, or going to the Far East of Africa or India, meeting people, exchanging ideas, reading all you wanted to anyway, and instead I wasted it at Roosevelt." (Aardvark magazine, 1963 interview)

Shel spent his time in the Army working as a cartoonist and a reporter for the Pacific edition of the Stars and Stripes publication. Even though, he was not considered a "model soldier", often poking fun at the military and the officers in his cartoons, Shel would look back at his days in the Army with fondness and as an opportunity for him to grow as an artist.

Returning home to Chicago after serving his term in the Army, Shel became a hot dog vendor at Comiskey Park, while doing freelance cartooning work. About a year later, Shel met Hugh Hefner, and got a job cartooning for a gentleman's magazine. It is here that Shel also got the opportunity to travel as he would report stories for the magazine from all over the world.

After a car accident shattered his leg, Shel was forced to stop traveling for a few years to recover. He spent his time on his cartoons and began writing music. Shel Silverstein recorded his first album, Hairy Jazz in 1959.

On May 10, 1999  Shel Silverstein dies of heart failure in Key West, Florida, at the age of 68