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Shel Silverstein

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:60,000.00 - 80,000.00 USD
Shel Silverstein

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Auction Date:2018 Sep 12 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Incredible archive celebrating Shel Silverstein's career throughout the 1960s and 1970s, a period during which he was a resident cartoonist for Hugh Hefner’s Playboy magazine, a song writer for Johnny Cash, Helen Reddy, and Dr. Hook, and a beloved writer and illustrator of children’s poetry books. The compendium consists of over 500 pages of manuscript, typed, and printed materials, including published and unpublished sketches, poems, lyrics, sheet music, and ideas, business and fan letters addressed to Silverstein, contracts, royalty statements, and two books and two record albums. Highlights include a handful of presumably unpublished Silverstein poems, fables, and sketches, including:

An autograph poem, unsigned, one page, 8.5 x 11, reading: “When a young man’s heart is gay— / Young and fully as rose in May / Then it’s time for 1-2-3 / Happy-as-a-man can-be- / oh-oh yours and mine / Vintage love and vintage wine.” The reverse is annotated in ballpoint, “Sally, WA 97416, One Mint Julip,” with a half-length drawing of a thin man.

An autograph manuscript signed “Shel Silverstein,” one notebook page, 8.5 x 13, entitled “Fables,” in full: “(1) Runner–gets older–becomes fast walker / –‘in walking fastness doesn’t count (2) Man was carrying block of ice / Freezing to death / ‘Come in and get warm’ / ‘I can’t my ice would melt by your fire / Then leave your ice outside / ‘I can’t, some one might steal it’ (3) They gave him a certificate when he was born / And he kept it in his dresser / they gave him a certificate to drive a car / And he kept it in his wallet / they gave him a certificate when he got out of / the army and his wife put it / In the envelope next to with their marrige certif / vaccination certificate and / They have him a certificate when he graduated / school and he put it in a frame at work / They gave him seven certificates and at work / he put them on his wall / He…” Silverstein adds a sketch of a woman’s face to the left side and writes below, “’i’ ed” and “onions,” “Richmond Va,” and the alphabet, leaving out letters “IOU” and “X.”

Autograph and typed poems, unsigned, one page both sides, 8.5 x 11, with two small sketches of faces. The first is a handwritten poem along the bottom, with several struck through, in full: “[A fellow whi] A student while learning McLuder McLLaughter. Was Aroused by a co Minesters daughter / Who was [cunning and] winsome and wicky wise / [With hands wet and sticken] With O my eyes / [Are as for the daughter] the water he taughter.” The typed poem above reads, in full: “there was a young man from la gronch / who developed a skinch on his skronch / but he shouted withpride / as he pushed it aside / ‘MM Im delighted / im delighted it iwasnt my zonch / there was an od spinster from Grooling / who stretched on a gram papered spooling / when informed of her plight she retorted all f right / but it seems such a waste of his schooling./ there was a young freloow named tucker / who was known as a terrible mucker / but he met a young laduy with past rather shady / and a bucker named rucker and durucker / an abbey from eastern dundaugh / was accosted accosting a caugh / im delighted it wasn’t my zonch.” On the reverse is a typed manuscript, unsigned, which reads, in part: “ths is the saga of vasco da vaga grandes and a don of old spain she screwed every kid from Seville to Madrid and then started all over again,……. Who will stand at my right a hand and hold the bridge with me now that that’s settled dsauid freddy we can c get back to work and maybe get something done so here we go round the mulberry bush so early in the morning this the saga of a likkle bou namex fred who had no head and was al ways fgoing around looking for his head so ione day this little boum walked into a cigar store and asked fir a pack of Marlboros ad the g guy sauid unto him I.”

An autograph note in pencil, unsigned, one notebook page, 14 x 8.5, which reads: “—Tree—Full Page / (Me-We)—Full Page / Pull Child Apart / Getting It All Together,” with Silverstein adding a wonderful sketch of a man’s upset face. “Tree” likely refers to ‘The Giving Tree,’ Silverstein’s classic illustrated story, and “Me-We” may refer to the poem, ‘Us,’ which begins, ‘Me and him / Him and me / We're always together / As you can see.’

The archive also features approximately 25 pages with sketches by Silverstein, mostly of heads, but also including two of Lafcadio, the title character from 1963 book ‘The Lion Who Shot Back,’ as well as approximately 165 pages of handwritten, typed, and printed poems, random thoughts, lyrics, rhymes, and drafts, many of which are unpublished. Some highlights:

An unsigned handwritten draft of Silverstein’s popular song and poem ‘Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out,’ one page both sides, 8.5 x 11, with several revisions; the piece first appeared on his 1972 album Freakin’ at the Freakers Ball and then in his 1974 poetry compilation Where the Sidewalk Ends; and an unsigned handwritten manuscript of “Deaf Donald,” which appeared in A Light in the Attic.

An unsigned handwritten manuscript entitled “Patience,” detailing the interrogation of the “sophisticated criminal mind,” which includes the lines, “And you’ll get your information, if you treat the situation / With the utmost trepidation and restraint / You must exercise Patience / And a kick in the spine.”

Handwritten lyrics on Chicago Playboy Mansion stationery, unsigned, in full: “Lemme hear those same sweet words I heard just about a minute ago / [insert: you were sayin just / Say em easy nice and slow / So–I know–that I aint dreaming / Same sweet smile that you were smiling before.”

An unsigned handwritten draft of “All I Really Need,” which reads: “All I really need is you / But if y’ got gold I’ll take that too / Some fancy gowns won’t make me blue / But all I really need is you / And a big fur coat to keep me warm / Horse & carriage won’t do no harm / Sailin boat with a 12 man crew / But all I really need is you / And a lovely house with a mortgage paid / 16 butlers and a maid / Saphire diamonds big and blue / But all I really need is you.”

An assortment of over 50 contracts are included, with 40 signed by Silverstein between 1961 and 1965, mostly for songs he wrote or co-wrote for Fall River Music, Hollis Music, Melody Trails, and Sixth Floor Music. Includes a May 1964 contract with 5½-6½ Productions and another with Bill Grauer Productions for a twelve-inch album, and three contracts for appearances on “The Tonight Show” on NBC dated May 1, 1963, April 1, 1964, and December 14, 1964.

Also of considerable interest is a collection of sheet music for 48 songs written or co-written by Silverstein, including ‘Never Bite a Married Woman on the Thigh,’ ‘Beans Taste Fine,’ ‘What You Gonna Do?,’ ‘When Love Comes Callin,’’ ‘Brown Leaves,’ ‘Fog Horn,’ ‘High and Low Blues,’ ‘The Slitherydee,’ ‘Yowzah,’ ‘Ring Around,’ I Got a Story to Tell,’ ‘The Wheel,’ ‘AC-DC Blues,’ ‘Fat Man’s Back in Town,’ and more, with some duplicates. Also includes ‘Sweet Baby Blues’ by Mark Feedman and six copies of ‘I Am Aware’ by Fred Engelberg.

The balance of the archive consists of over 160 pages of various business and personal correspondence, including several empty envelopes, largely to Silverstein, dated between 1962-1980, and additional miscellany that includes notes (many with names and phone numbers), phone messages, business cards, photographs, negatives, receipts, and lists. In overall fine condition. A venerable trove of creative energy, this enormous archive presents Silverstein during a time of relentless imagination, and offers a simply unprecedented amount of original work from the adored American artist.