May 9, 1999

Shel Silverstein(born September 25, 1930), a writer, lyricist, and cartoonist, was born in Chicago. Though his children's books are famous, books like Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back (1963), about a lion who eats hunters, he started doing cartoons for army publications.That got him a job after the Korean War, doing Playboy cartoons, even a job doing travel writing for that magazine.

His first cartoon collection is titled after a famous cartoon: "Now here's my plan" (1960). I think this started as a New Yorker cartoon: two guys are hanging from a dungeon wall, each wrist pinned into stone with hand cuffs. One guy says to the other: Now, here's my plan.

According to his New York Times obituary: "Silverstein, who maintained residences on Matha's Vineyard, Mass.; Key West; Greenwich Village, and on a houseboat in Sausalito, Calif., refused the grant interviews in recent years." [sic]

Silverstein's death occurred on May 8th or 9th (1999). No one is certain of the exact date,  since he was alone at the time.