Sheldon Allan Silverstein, more commonly known as Shel Silverstein, was born on
September 25, 1932, in Chicago, Illinois. He started writing at the age of 12 although he would
have rather been playing ball. But, he lacked athletic ability, and therefore, became a writer.
He started off writing and drawing cartoons for the Sunday newspaper when he was over in
Vietnam. That triggered his interest in becoming a comical writer, as well as writing poetry and
drawing cartoons to go along with the poems. He is most well known for his poetry in
children's literature, although, he was also a co…
