{Content written for the BOXSeats section insideboxmag.com by Mechelle Lyon}
Books are the gateway to unknown worlds and no one takes readers to unchartered lands better than author/illustrator Shel Silverstien. His writing abilities are an art all their own, but it’s Silverstien’s drawings that really bring the reader to a whole new whimsical world. Silverstien started his career by being the leading cartoonist for Playboy magazine during the 50′s and 60′s. His featured article included 23 installments of illustrated travel essays called “Shel Silverstien Visits…”. He then went on to publish multiple children’s books that were filled with his quirky drawing of delightful characters on adventures. For some of us adults, whose imaginations refuse to grow up, his work still continues to impress.
Since 1955, Silverstien’s drawings have helped us fly in shoes …
Eat a whole whale…
Learn how to give…
And taken us to the edge of the world…
Shel Silverstein was the first writer than I tried to emulate. I memorized the Invitation that opens Where the Sidewalk Ends, and would recite it to myself in an awed whisper. In my late teens and early 20′s I has my heart set on getting a tattoo of the illustration for Hug O’War. (It never happened, and I’m not sorry, though it would have been a cool tattoo.) When Shel Silverstein died, I think it was the first time that someone who had truly impacted me had passed away and I was genuinely sorrowful. And now, I have the joy of sharing his poems and illustrations with my sons, who seem to delight in them just as much as I did. Thanks for reminding me.