Personal Life
Silverstein was born into a Jewish family and later in his life had two children. His first child was daughter Shoshanna (Shanna), born June 30, 1970, with Susan Hastings. Susan Hastings died five years later, on June 29, 1975, in Baltimore, Maryland. Shoshanna's aunt and uncle, Meg and Curtis Marshall, raised her from the age of five until her death of a cerebral aneurysm in Baltimore on April 24, 1982, at the age of 11. She was attending the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore at the time of her death. Silverstein dedicated his 1983 reprint of Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros? to the Marshalls. A Light in the Attic was dedicated to Shoshanna, and Silverstein drew the sign with a flower attached. Shoshanna means lily or rose in Hebrew. Silverstein's second child was his son Matthew, born in 1983. Silverstein's 1996 Falling Up was dedicated to Matt.
Later in life, Silverstein divided time between his favorite places such as Greenwich Village, Key West, Martha’s Vineyard and Sausalito, California. He continued to create plays, songs, poems, stories and drawings until he died at his home in Key West, Florida on May 8 or 9, 1999, of a heart attack. His body was discovered by two housekeepers the following Monday, May 10. It was reported that he could have died on either day that weekend.
Read more about this topic: Shel Silverstein
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