SOURCE: “Shel Silverstein, 1932-1999.” Publishers Weekly 246, no. 20 (17 May 1999): 32.

In the following obituary, Publishers Weekly provides a brief overview of Silverstein's career.

Poet, songwriter, recording artist and cartoonist Shel Silverstein died of a heart attack on May 9. He was 66.

Born and raised in Chicago, Silverstein began his career as a writer and cartoonist for Playboy in the early 1950s. Prior to that, he was a cartoonist for the Pacific Stars and Stripes while in the Army in Japan and Korea.

Silverstein was the author of four bestselling children's books: The Giving Tree (1964), Where the Sidewalk Ends (1974), A Light in the Attic (1981) and Falling Up (1996), all published by HarperCollins. Together they have sold over 18 million copies in hardcover and have been translated into 20 languages.

Although his first books were published for adults, at the suggestion of author/illustrator Tomi Ungerer, Silverstein wrote and illustrated his first book for young readers...