LOVE AND RESENTMENT

litglutton:

Top 100 Badass Writers in History

#97: Shel Silverstein

Silverstein attended the University of Illinois in order to study Art, but was expelled after one year due to his low grades. He transferred to the Chicago of Fine Arts only to meet the same end. His third try at Roosevelt University ended on slightly better terms: It wasn’t his grades that forced him to leave, but rather the draft.

Silverstein was drafted into the armed forces during the 1950s and served as a GI in the Korean War. It was here that he began his career as a cartoonist by working for “Pacific Stars and Stripes,” a Pacific-based U.S. military publication. He soon developed a reputation for mocking the military and his officers - His barbed wit made him anything but a model soldier.

After returning home to Chicago, Silverstein found work as a hot dog vendor in Comiskey Park. He struggled in freelance cartooning before meeting Hugh Hefner a year later and began working for Playboy magazine. As staff cartoonist, he contributed several poems to the publication and wrote such books as “Playboy’s Teevee Jeebies.” 

Silverstein had never planned on writing for children. It was not until he was introduced to Harper Collins’ legendary editor Ursula Nordstrom that he was pushed into children’s books. His short novel “The Giving Tree” had been previously rejected by editor William Cole, who claimed that it would never sell because it fell between the interests of children and adults. Harper Collins published it in 1964, slowly bringing Silverstein’s humorous poetry and wit into the public eye.

Unwilling to fully limit himself, Silverstein moved into song writing and even began writing plays in 1981. His best known script  ”The Lady or the Tiger Show” was a satiric one-act play centered around a game show based on Frank R. Stockton’s classic short story. In 1990, he was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his song “I’m Checkin’ Out” in the film Postcards from the Edge. 

Silverstein continued to publish new work up until his death in May 1999. He suffered from a heart attack while in Key West, Florida.

thedaddycomplex:

Are You Mr. Mom Enough?

(There. I fixed it.)

assorted-goodness:

Shadow of the Colossus - by strider1990

assorted-goodness:

Beyond the Mountains - by Jonathan Law

(via: videogamenostalgia)

assorted-goodness:

Iron Man - by Paul Simms

Prints available at Society6

assorted-goodness:

Shadow of the Colossus - by Merli Luca