TIL children's author Shel Silverstein had sex with hundreds and possibly thousands of women and frequently visited the Playboy mansion
18h 39m ago by lemmy.zip/u/favoredponcho in til from en.wikipedia.org
Anyone else breathing a sigh of relief that the childrens author with a overactive libido wasn't diddling kids?
Or making anti-semitic comments like Roald "The Little Bastards'll Swallow Anything" Dahl.
If I recall, Dahl was some sort of secret agent for Britain during WW2. So not all that surprising that he'd be a p.o.s.
It would be like a CIA agent writing children's books.
I mean, Julia Child worked for the OSS during WWII and wasn't a POS (as far as I know).
Christopher Lee was some sort of agent as well. However, joining the Sith, becoming an vampire, and cutting down the forests of Isengard are kinda dick moves.
Roald Dahl was an RAF pilot during the early days of World War II. He got injured and was discharged because of it. I've read his autobiography when I was a child, which was quite interesting. Shame that he was anti-semite.
It's really just nice that he's going for their moms.
Well that was a relief.
Yeah, the sentence definitely could have used a second draft. OP should write for Hollywod with the range of emotions I just went through.
All in under a minute too.
I sure hope it took you less than a minute to read that headline.
hey there were a lot of big words ok!
No idea why, but that range of emotions thing just fucking killed me lmao.
"Wealthy artist had a lot of sex a hundred years ago"
Shocking
A hundred years ago?
I mean, they are wrong because he was writing up until the late 80s/early 90s, but also the man was born almost 100 years ago... and that's fuckin wild man.
the man was born almost 100 years ago... and that's fuckin wild man.
That's just love life. Nothing you can do about that.
It's just me kidding around. Exaggeration for comedic effect.
What else is there to do in world before social media? Just make art and fuck.
Personal life
From around 1967 to 1975, Silverstein lived on a houseboat in Sausalito, California. He also owned homes on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts; Greenwich Village, New York; and Key West, Florida.[34] He never married, and according to the 2007 biography A Boy Named Shel, had sex with "hundreds, perhaps thousands of women".[2] He was also a frequent presence at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion and Playboy Clubs.
Silverstein met a woman from Sausalito named Susan Taylor Hastings at the Playboy Mansion,[35] and they had a daughter named Shoshanna Jordan Hastings (b. June 30, 1970).[36] Susan died on June 29, 1975, one day before Shoshanna's fifth birthday,[36] and Shoshanna went to live with her uncle and aunt in Baltimore, Maryland.[35] Shoshanna died of a cerebral aneurysm on April 24, 1982, at age 11.[37] Silverstein's 1981 book A Light in the Attic is dedicated to her.[35] Silverstein later met Key West native Sarah Spencer, who drove a tourist train and inspired Silverstein's song "The Great Conch Train Robbery".[38][39][40] They had a son named Matthew De Ver (b. November 10, 1984),[41] who later became a New York City–based songwriter and producer.[42]
Of course he had a boat.
Because of the implication.
Baby it’s cold outside…
Tbf, houseboats are pretty dope.
They're usually just moored at a dock, so not really the same implication
Uhh… Baby it’s cold outside
it's sausalito baby. it's 50. i brought a light jacket. if that's too cold i'll come back with some chowda.
If they were of legal age and it was consensual then good for him, I guess? Who cares this much about someone else's love life? Honestly...
Well... So long as it was all consensual...
He nicknamed his unit "the giving tree".
A Red Light in the Attic
He has investigated quite thoroughly many places where the sidewalk ends.
That fits for the time. The Playboy mansion was swinging in the 60's and 70's..
He’s allowed to?
Playboy Mansion is a seedy shithole coming apart at the seams though. It’s the sort of place you’d put a party together and fight the animate mold growing on the walls. But when you find the treasure chest, it’ll just be full of dirty dildoes. Not worth the dungeon crawl to get there.
He died almost 20 years ago. It wasn't a seedy shit hole back then.
Well, it was…
https://people.com/crystal-hefner-says-iconcic-playboy-mansion-gross-8548270
some people will put up with seedy shit holes to be around pretty women. i put up with seedy shit holes to have a friendly venue for my band (and the crowd was very friendly, it just was never cleaned properly). some places have specific ambiance they project for a crowd they like to attract. some just don't know better. I'm assuming playboy mansion was the former.
I am admittedly not familiar with most of his work directly, but I had no idea that Shel Silverstein was a man
ngl dude has always given me serial killer vibes on the jacket photos. still own a lot of his books.
They really went and decided to publish some, if not, the best children's poetry of a generation and then picked the absolute scariest fucking headshots they could of him.
Maybe those are the most flattering head shots...
Nah I've seen other photos of him, he wasn't a bad looking guy. I think just not very photogenic or maybe he liked the scary pictures.
well put
In the days before the internet got big and comprehensive I assumed he was some kind of turtle or tortoise
My low stakes conspiracy is that Shel Silverstein is actually Grigori Rasputin. I have nothing to support this and I will not be accepting criticism.
Shel wasn't "born" until 1930, so that kinda works.
I was going to say, and Jason Mantzoukas kind of gives me similar IDK i am going to pursue my art across whatever genre it goes FU i am having fun DEAL WITH IT vibes but he was born 25 years too early. also he is a tv/film guy, not a music/poetry guy so the analogy breaks down but if i am ever at an event with him again i am going to have to tell him the thought occurred to me because i think he would like it.
possibly thousands of women
A new Dschingis Khan? LMAO
Khan made lots of kids tho. This one did it just for the love of the game.
No effective contraception available at Khan's time, though.
animal intestine condoms have been used throughout antiquity, and a recipe to induce abortion is in the bible. not to start an argument, but contraception has been around for millenia. not 100% or even 95% effective, but effective enough.
He was giving tree. 😏
yeeeeeeeeeah....
the sequel to it is... sadly awful.
https://genius.com/Shel-silverstein-the-father-of-a-boy-named-sue-lyrics
https://www.wideopencountry.com/father-of-a-boy-named-sue-shel-silverstein/
Okay..
This dude fucks
Nice.
In his shoes I'd have done the same.
Lisa of people have sex.
Leave Lisa out of this.
LISA!
You are tearing me apart, Lisa!
Oh hai Shel! How's your sex life been lately?
DENTAL PLAN!
Lisa goes where Lisa wants to go
Legend
i have trouble thinking of him as a children's author. dude was an autuer and was not limited to children's poetry. (my favorite rendition of this song is on the muppets)
He wasn't a children's author
Second paragraph
As a children's author, some of his most acclaimed works include The Giving Tree, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and A Light in the Attic.
Where the butthole ends
Well you didn't go to the Playboy mansion for the chicken wings.
The Wilt Chamberlain of literature