Shel Silverstein: The Beat Generation

Shel Silverstein was a very famous American songwriter, cartoonist, author, and poet. He has written award winning books, songs and poems beloved by all ages. Silverstein can be considered a literary figure and role model because of how different he wrote his books compared to how most other authors wrote their books in his time. Silverstein is well known for his work on children’s books, but he also wrote songs, poems, and drew cartoons for everybody to enjoy. Silverstein has been writing books since the age of twelve, which fueled his creativity to last until 1999, the year of his death. Silverstein is an author everybody should remember because of the advancements and improvements he made to book creation and literature.

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There is not an accurate way to describe this time period because of the many changes that happened every few years. Most of these changes occurred during the Beat Generation. The Beat Generation was a movement where people put their own views of literature and culture into their own works (“The Beat Generation” 1). One example of a major change that happened in this time period is how literature was written, and how people reacted to it. Before the Beat Generation, most books were written for entertainment or education and were not through provoking. After the start of the Beat Generation, an increasing amount of thought provoking books were published, which led to the discussion of what works were considered acceptable literature, which led to the start of censorship (“The Beat Generation” 2). The ideas of authors made it into children’s books, but these ideas were still considered acceptable for young children. For example, the drawings that accompanied Silverstein’s poems are can be sometimes morbid, but integrate with the poem, and are used to help interpret them. Many of the children’s books written in this time period were mostly silly books meant to entertain children. Examples of books from this time would be Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in The Hat and Horton Hears a Who. Characteristics of famous children's books from this time include an ample amount of alliteration and rhyming, whole pages being occupied with pictures, and short simple dialogue to keep it easy for children to understand. The content of children’s books has evolved over time, and the culture around is has