Shel Silverstein: A Cockeyed Visionary

“Listen to the mustn’ts, child.  Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts.  Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me ... Anything can happen, child.  Anything can be.” ― Shel Silverstein

In the most recent blog that featured rare shots from Jim’s Thanksgiving spent with Johnny Cash’s family and friends in 1969, I wanted to explore Jim’s incredible work documenting Shel Silverstein, the renaissance man who wrote “A Boy Named Sue” for Cash. Shel was there at the wonderful Hendersonville thanks giving and guitar pulling along with the rest of the brilliant Cash clan, Kris Kristofferson and Bobby Bare.

As you all probably realize, Silverstein’s multi-facted heyday was before my prime, so I only knew a bit of his work as an author/illustrator of children’s books such as the classics “The Giving Tree” and “The Missing Piece Meets the Big O.” You can learn more about the breadth and scope of this work (Shel's books have been translated into more than 30 languages and sold more than 20 million copies) at his official site for kids.  Hence, it is with no small amount of delight that I learn just how wide-ranging Silverstein’s genius was across an array of fields: poetry, singer-songwriting, cartooning and screenwriting. Otto Penzler, in his crime anthology Murder for Revenge (1998), which included a Silverstein short story, commented on his versatility: “The phrase ‘Renaissance man’ tends to get overused these days, but apply it to Shel Silverstein and it practically begins to seem inadequate.  Not only has he produced with seeming ease country music hits and popular songs, but he’s been equally successful at turning his hand to poetry, short stories, plays, and children’s books. “Moreover, his whimsically hip fables, beloved by readers of all ages, have made him a stalwart of bestseller lists.  A Light in the Attic, most remarkably, showed the kind of staying power on the New York Times chart — two years, to be precise.  His unmistakable illustrative style is another crucial element to his appeal.  Just as no writer sounds like Shel, no other artist’s vision is as delightfully, sophisticatingly cockeyed.”

Silverstein told  Publishers Weekly: “I would hope that people, no matter what age, would find something to identify with in my books, pick up one and experience a personal sense of discovery. That's great. I think that if you're a creative person, you should just go about your business, do your work and not care about how it's received. “I never read reviews because if you believe the good ones you have to believe the bad ones, too.  Not that I don't care about success.  I do, but only because it lets me do what I want.  I was always prepared for success but that means that I have to be prepared for failure, too.  I have an ego, I have ideas, I want to be articulate, to communicate but in my own way. “People who say they create only for themselves and don't care if they are published ...  I hate to hear talk like that.  If it's good, it's too good not to share.  That's the way I feel about my work.  So I'll keep on communicating, but only my way.  Lots of things I won't do.  I won't go on television because who am I talking to?  Johnny Carson?  The camera?  Twenty million people I can't see?  Uh-uh.  And I won't give any more interviews.”

I remember back in the day when Jim and I were together he would utter the words “art photo” and “artiste” with the utmost disdain, using this awful sort of high-pitched faux pretentious voice.  I guess all things arty-farty (another Jim-ism) just rubbed his photojournalist soul the wrong way.  Or maybe he just appointed himself an official  member of the Pretension Police.  You never could tell with him, especially as he got older. Nonetheless, when Jim let himself get in touch with his creative spirit while he was shooting the results could be magical. In these never-before-seen shots culled from the JMPLLC archive, it looks like Shel brought it out in Jim, lucky for all of us.  And I realize now that Jim in his crude-ass brusque dark-light crazy way was channeling some of the best of Shel all along.

“If there is a book you want to read but isn’t written yet, write it.” ― Shel Silverstein, Roger Was a Razor Fish, and Other Poems