Shel Silverstein, born in Chicago on 25 September 1930, was a poet, cartoonist, children’s author and songwriter whose work crossed unexpectedly into country music. He wrote Johnny Cash’s career-defining 1969 hit “A Boy Named Sue”, helping establish his reputation in Nashville alongside his celebrated books, including *Where the Sidewalk Ends*, *A Light in the Attic* and *The Giving Tree*.

Silverstein began as a cartoonist for *Stars and Stripes* before contributing regularly to *Playboy* from 1957 into the mid-1970s. His songs included “The Unicorn”, “Put Another Log on the Fire”, “Hey Loretta”, “The Cover of ‘Rolling Stone’” and “A Long Time Ago”; “A Boy Named Sue” reached number one on the US country chart and number two on the pop chart. Silverstein died of heart failure in 1999, aged 68, and was posthumously inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.