Silverstein's Editor Robert Warren example essay topic

Two of Silverstein's books revolve around simply drawn geometric shapes which critics feel sensitively represent human emotion. Widely accepted as parables of adaptation and growth, The Missing Piece and The Missing Piece Meets the Big O probe the quest for fulfillment in relationships. In the first book, a circle minus a pie-shaped wedge rolls along looking for its lost piece only to discover that it isn't needed, while in the sequel the pie-shaped wedge finds that it, too, can get along on its own. The Giving Tree, a fable in which a tree gives everything it has to a boy over the course of his lifetime, is perhaps Silverstein's most well-known work.

Despite the public's initial lack of interest, the book eventually raised Silverstein's name to the best-seller list. It has recently fallen into some critical disfavor because of its theme of exploitation. Though popular, critics feel that these works present a negative attitude toward human relationships and may be too advanced for children. Nevertheless, many reviewers regard Silverstein, with his repertoire of hilarious nonsense, provocative fables, and expressive drawings, as unique in the children's literature of our time. Although Lafcadio and Uncle Shelby's Giraffe and a Half met with moderate success, it was not until The Giving Tree that Silverstein first achieved widespread fame as a children's writer. The story of a tree that sacrifices its shade, fruit, branches, and finally its trunk to a little boy in order to make him happy, The Giving Tree had slow sales initially, but its audience steadily grew.

As Richard R. Lineman reported in the New York Times Book Review, "Many readers saw a religious symbolism in the altruistic tree; ministers preached sermons on The Giving Tree; it was discussed in Sunday schools". Despite its popularity as a moral or fable, the book was on occasion attacked by feminist critics for what they perceived as its inherent sexism; Barbara A. Schram noted in Interracial Books for Children: "By choosing the female pronoun for the all-giving tree and the male pronoun for the all-taking boy, it is clear that the author did indeed have a prototypical master / slave relationship in mind... How frightening that little boys and girls who read The Giving Tree will encounter this glorification of female selflessness and male selfishness". In 1974 Silverstein published the But the divorced Silverstein, who leaves behind a son, Matthew, 15, will probably be best remembered for his dozen children's books -- among them The Giving Tree and the bestselling Where the Sidewalk Ends -- which have been translated into 20 languages and have sold some 14 million hardback copies worldwide. "It is astounding how he crossed over age and gender lines", says Silverstein's editor Robert Warren.

Cartoonist Jules Feiffer, a Silverstein friend, understands his gift. "He imagined things the way kids do when they " re little, and it goes away when they " re older -- only in his case it didn't go away", he says. "I admired his line very, very much", he adds, "and stole from it as much as I could". In his 1981 children's classic, A Light in the Attic, which spent 182 weeks on the bestseller list, Silverstein set forth a philosophy that also makes a most fitting epitaph: Draw a crazy picture, Write a nutty poem, Sing a mumble-gamble song, Whistle through your comb. Do a loony-go ony dance 'Cross the kitchen floor, Put something silly in the world That ain't been there before.

Silverstein's longtime editor, Robert Warren, editorial director of HarperCollins's Children's Books, said, "He had a genius that transcended age and gender, and his work probably touched the lives of more people than any writer in the second half of the 20th century". According to Warren, Silverstein was working on a number of manuscripts at the timeSilverstein's numerous awards include a New York Times Notable Book designation in 1974 for Where the Sidewalk Ends; an IRA / Children's Choice award in 1982 for The Missing Piece Meets the Big 0; and the George C. Stone and William Allen White awards in 1984 for A Light in the Attic. of his death. Silverstein can be thanked for helping to return children's poetry to its populist roots, reminding adults that nonsense can help kids wrestle with life's ironies and teaching kids that poetry can be a shortcut to the truth. The present collection seems to have forgotten its creator's best lessons.