Excerpt from In and Out
of Books
(New York Times Book
Review, September 24, 1961.)
by Lew
Nichols
Multiple Threat--If you're of the right age...define this as college age, or a bit beyond, or in
spirit so--you will have been chuckling over something called "Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book," part of
which appeared in Playboy and all of which is now in book form. Unlike most alphabet
books, this takes sides with the children (E is for Egg, and see if you can hit the ceiling with it) and is
the work of Shel Silverstein. Mr. S is a full-blown type of Renaissance man--artist, cartoonist, poet,
jazz singer, playwright, composer.
He comes from Chicago, entered the Renaissance world by way of Stars and Stripes in Japan and
Korea. For the last four years he has been roving cartoonist for Playboy, last two with home
base in New York, southwest corner of the Village. He has written thirty-five to forty songs, most but
not all hillbilly, has a formal children's book coming out next year, at one time in Copenhagen played
washboard with Papa Bue's Danish Viking New Orleans Jazz Band. All members of Papa Bue's bands
had beards, as does Mr. Silverstein, and he was tempted to remain.
Uncle Shelby has a theory that children and elderly parties like to be treated as anyone else, not as
children and elderly parties. Got the idea for the ABZ book while standing on a street corner licking
an ice cream cone. Kid came along and looked at it wistfully. "Very good," remarked Uncle Shelby.
"Why don't you ask your mother to get you one?" Kid got a cone, Uncle Shelby got a dirty look--and
a book.
Back