As a writer for the past 40-plus years, I consider myself very lucky. I’ve been able to write over 2,000 columns plus a few books. Not everyone has that chance. I’ve talked to lots of aspiring writers who have tried penning a novel. Most became discouraged when not published. In exasperation, some have said they’ll “just write a children’s book” – assuming that’s so much easier. Perhaps it is in some respects. In other ways, succeeding in that style is even more challenging.
Shel Silverstein came from a family of Eastern European immigrants who all lived crammed into a Chicago apartment. Shel was distracted and dyslexic. He couldn’t focus and didn’t finish school.
In 1953, Shel joined the military and began drawing cartoons for his troopship newspaper. Once discharged, he went back to Chicago to look for work. He happened to knock on the door of a start-up magazine. He was hired to start doing illustrations and write some travel articles. That start-up magazine happened to be Playboy. Shel became its “left-beat” artistic talent. On the side, he began penning amusing songs. Some began to draw acclaim and were recorded onto albums. He is credited with writing the Johnny Cash hit, A Boy Named Sue....
Shel also toyed with writing a few children’s books. In 1962, he wrote The Giving Tree. Rejected by one publisher, accepted by another and in print in 1964, it’s now considered a classic of children’s literature. But not without some hitches.
The Giving Tree is far-and-away Shel’s most famous book. It chronicles the wholesale relationship between a young boy and a tree that gives her all – very much like a mother and her child. The emotions that surface from the story are moving and contagious.
When the boy is young, the tree offers him her branches to climb on for fun and apples for food. The boy carves “Me + T” onto the tree. As the boy grows, he is without a job. The tree offers plentiful apples for him to sell for money. As a young man, he brings a girl to visit “his” tree.
Once married, the boy comes less and less often. The tree is lonely. One day, he returns to cut branches from the tree to build a house. Again, the tree is “happy” to offer him what she has. As a man he uses wood from the trunk of the tree to build a boat. Eventually, there’s nothing left to give. All that’s left is a stump. The tree feels sad and alone.
In the end, the boy returns as an old man shuffling along with a cane. The tree is sad because she has nothing left to give. Yet, all the old man wants “is a quiet place to sit and rest.” He does so on the stump. With that, the tree is again happy because she was once more able to “give.”
Shel Silverstein was a master of simplicity as evidenced in The Giving Tree and other books such as, Where The Sidewalk Ends.
Of course, no good deed goes unpunished. In 1988, a Colorado library banned the book for being “sexist” (because the “taking” boy was male and the “giving” tree female). Clearly, the “mother/child relationship thing eluded them. But, that’s OK. Dr. Seuss’ “Green, Eggs and Ham” was once banned in China for “promoting Marxism” so it’s best to take all that with an entire shaker of salt.
Shel died in 1999 at age 69. He is still considered one of the most inventive and imaginative authors and illustrators.
When first published in 1964, a mere 6,000 to 7,000 copies of The Giving Tree were printed by Harper & Row selling for $2.95. Since then, well over 10 million copies are in print in 47 languages placing it #9 on the list of “Best Children’s Books.” Today, collectors pay over $5,000 for one of those original First Edition copies in top condition with dust jacket.
In two weeks, the US Postal Service is issuing a First Class “Forever” stamp honoring the author and his work. It features Shel’s original illustration of the young boy holding his hands out to catch a falling apple from the tree. Below, printed in comic type, is the name Shel Silverstein.
The first-day-of-issue event will be held on April 8, at the Chicago school Shel Silverstein attended as a boy, Darwin Elementary. Special First Day of Issue cancels can also be ordered by mail. For information, go to the USPS website www.USPS.gov.
For more collecting advice, visit www.peterexford.blogspot.com