Sheldon Silverstein born on September 25, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois, United States, was an American author of literature for children, a poet, screenwriter, songwriter, composer and musician. In some of his works, he styled himself as Uncle Shelby. He won the Grammy Award for the Best Country Song.
Sheldon studied at the Roosevelt High School. This accomplished writer and producer lived for 2 decades in Rome and worked with notable and influential directors like Federico Fellini and Sergio Leone. He worked on the Edith Piaf Story in Paris with Claude Lelouche. For his series of surrealistic L.A Shorts, called ‘Midnight Movies’ he gained a cult while he was a student in college. Hazard Jack, Desire, The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Pumpkin Karver, Death Mask, Trapped, Angel and The Devil, The Killing Jar, Never on Friday and many more are his well known film credits.
Silverstein Sheldon is also accredited with turning a number of incomplete movies into finished movies. The many films he bought from Technicolor Rome, he finished and got sold all over the globe. ‘Where the Sidewalk Ends’ and ‘The Giving Tree’ are two of Sheldon Silverstein’s well known books for children. ‘A Light in the Attic’ is also one of his poetry collections.
In 1950 he was enlisted in the US Army, after which he soon began to draw cartoons for magazines. However he gained national recognition for his work for the Playboy magazine from 1957 to mid 1970’s. At the same time he began exploring other areas of creativity including music and writing. As the 1970s began he ramped up his efforts in writing songs. Some of his popular songs include So Good to So Bad, One on the Way and A Boy Named Sue. Besides this he also wrote soundtracks for motion pictures. In the 1980s his output was minimal. Silverstein Sheldon died of a heart attack on May 10, 1999 at Key West, Florida, United States.