1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey Rain 2 00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:11,000 Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren voc obam here. Decades ago, in the evenings 3 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:13,920 Speaker 1: around closing time, a man with a very bald head 4 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:16,560 Speaker 1: and a very dark beard used to come sloping into 5 00:00:16,600 --> 00:00:19,880 Speaker 1: the Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, his shoulders hunched 6 00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:23,440 Speaker 1: as though warding off a perpetual cold wind. The proprietor, 7 00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:26,960 Speaker 1: Auto Penzler, had come to expect these visits, Indeed, he 8 00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:29,480 Speaker 1: looked forward to them. He would close up the shop 9 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:31,800 Speaker 1: and guide the man back to his inner sanctum, a 10 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:35,920 Speaker 1: book line study with Florida ceiling shelves. There, the bearded 11 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:38,960 Speaker 1: man would deliver a sheaf of papers containing a new, 12 00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:42,040 Speaker 1: freshly penned mystery story to be added to the anthology 13 00:00:42,080 --> 00:00:45,360 Speaker 1: that Penzler was publishing. The writer refused to take any 14 00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:47,840 Speaker 1: money for his efforts, even though Penzler was paying well. 15 00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:52,080 Speaker 1: He craved a different compensation. His eyes gleamed as Penzler 16 00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:54,880 Speaker 1: slid his payment across the desk. Between them, it was 17 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:58,080 Speaker 1: a stack of used books containing dozens of stories written 18 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:00,960 Speaker 1: in the mystery genre. Later that night he would devour 19 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:04,720 Speaker 1: them one by one, But first Penzler and the bearded 20 00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:08,399 Speaker 1: man would talk and talk. They talked about books about life. 21 00:01:09,040 --> 00:01:11,920 Speaker 1: Auto Pendler was just recovering from a devastating breakup, and 22 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:15,040 Speaker 1: so they spoke about that at length. In a recent 23 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:18,000 Speaker 1: phone interview for this article, Penzler remembered that at a 24 00:01:18,040 --> 00:01:22,000 Speaker 1: certain juncture, his guest said something so piercingly insightful and 25 00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:24,800 Speaker 1: eloquent about the breakup that it took his breath away. 26 00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:28,319 Speaker 1: Penzler said, I wish that I could remember what he said, 27 00:01:28,360 --> 00:01:30,480 Speaker 1: but I failed to write it down. What I do 28 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:32,760 Speaker 1: remember is that when I expressed my amazement at his 29 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:36,040 Speaker 1: facility with words, he just shrugged and said, I guess 30 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:39,880 Speaker 1: that's why they call me a poet. He could have added, 31 00:01:39,959 --> 00:01:43,160 Speaker 1: among many other things, because our bald and bearded man 32 00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:47,360 Speaker 1: was Shell Silverstein, a true Renaissance ban Of course, many 33 00:01:47,400 --> 00:01:49,840 Speaker 1: of us know him as the author and illustrator of 34 00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:52,040 Speaker 1: The Giving Tree, A Light in the Attic, and Where 35 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:55,440 Speaker 1: the Sidewalk Ends, among many of the other wildly successful 36 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:58,520 Speaker 1: books that he wrote and drew for children. But that's 37 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:02,440 Speaker 1: only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Silverstein also drew 38 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:06,080 Speaker 1: cartoons and wrote plays for adults, and penned numerous songs, 39 00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:09,400 Speaker 1: especially country songs. In fact, he won two Grammys for 40 00:02:09,400 --> 00:02:11,960 Speaker 1: a songwriting, one of them for the Johnny Cash hit. 41 00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:17,480 Speaker 1: A boy named Sue Sheldon Allan Shell Silverstein was born 42 00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:20,480 Speaker 1: into a Jewish family in Chicago in nineteen thirty. His 43 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:22,920 Speaker 1: father ran a bakery, which only began to thrive in 44 00:02:22,919 --> 00:02:26,280 Speaker 1: the wake of the Great Depression. After high school, Shell 45 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:29,000 Speaker 1: spent some time studying at the Art Institute of Chicago 46 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:33,280 Speaker 1: and later at Roosevelt University, but was drafted into the U. S. Army, 47 00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:36,560 Speaker 1: serving in Korea and Japan. Silverstein began working for the 48 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:39,519 Speaker 1: military periodical The Stars and Stripes, and it was there 49 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:44,000 Speaker 1: that he began regularly publishing his idiosyncratic cartoons. After his 50 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:46,720 Speaker 1: military service, Silverstein got a job as a cartoonist for 51 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:50,600 Speaker 1: the fledgling magazine Playboy. For his Playboy gig, he traveled 52 00:02:50,639 --> 00:02:54,040 Speaker 1: the world, sending cartoon dispatches from bar and wide. In 53 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:58,000 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three, Silverstein met book editor Ursula Nordstrom, who 54 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,919 Speaker 1: prodded him into writing books for children, and that same 55 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:03,200 Speaker 1: year he wrote The Giving Tree, a book about the 56 00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:06,480 Speaker 1: nature of altruism and selfishness that would become his most 57 00:03:06,520 --> 00:03:09,840 Speaker 1: famous and popular work. His sense of the absurd, and 58 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:13,120 Speaker 1: the whimsical cartoon line drawings that illustrated this and all 59 00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:17,560 Speaker 1: of his books would become his hallmarks. In deceptively simple language, 60 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:20,800 Speaker 1: his exploration of the innocence and imagination of childhood made 61 00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:23,200 Speaker 1: him one of the most celebrated and widely read authors 62 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:27,639 Speaker 1: for generations of children and adults alike. Otto Penzler recalls 63 00:03:27,639 --> 00:03:29,880 Speaker 1: Silverstein telling him that he spent a year living at 64 00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:32,520 Speaker 1: the Playboy Mansion as a guest of Hugh Hefner. It 65 00:03:32,600 --> 00:03:34,800 Speaker 1: was there that he met Susan Hastings, with whom he 66 00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:38,840 Speaker 1: had a daughter named Shoshanna in nineteen seventy Tragically, Susan 67 00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:42,240 Speaker 1: died in nineteen seventy five, and Shoshanna passed away unexpectedly 68 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:46,360 Speaker 1: after a cerebral anneurism in nineteen eighty two. By many accounts, 69 00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:50,520 Speaker 1: her death utterly devastated Silverstein. In nineteen eighty four, he 70 00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:55,040 Speaker 1: had a son named Matthew with Sarah Spencer. According to Penzler, 71 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:59,960 Speaker 1: Silverstein was a deeply eccentric man. Penzler told us, for instance, 72 00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:02,320 Speaker 1: it wasn't unusual for him to be having dinner in 73 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:04,640 Speaker 1: a restaurant with a group of friends and then suddenly 74 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:07,320 Speaker 1: announced that he was done, get up, take a taxi 75 00:04:07,360 --> 00:04:09,880 Speaker 1: to the airport, and fly to Chicago or Los Angeles 76 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:11,800 Speaker 1: or Florida, or wherever he felt like going on the 77 00:04:11,800 --> 00:04:15,920 Speaker 1: spur of the moment. Shell Silverstein died of a heart 78 00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:19,560 Speaker 1: attack in at the age of just sixty eight, but 79 00:04:19,839 --> 00:04:22,839 Speaker 1: in story, song, and image, he left behind a remarkably 80 00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:31,520 Speaker 1: prolific artistic record. Today's episode was written by Ocean Karen 81 00:04:31,640 --> 00:04:33,800 Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and 82 00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:36,600 Speaker 1: lots of other topics, visit how stuffworks dot com. Brain 83 00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:39,280 Speaker 1: Stuff is production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts my 84 00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:42,280 Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or 85 00:04:42,279 --> 00:04:43,960 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.