Shel Silverstein, who died in 1999 at the age of 67, was a man of many talents -- cartoonist, singer, songwriter, poet and children's verse writer (''A Light in the Attic'' and ''Where the Sidewalk Ends'' made long appearances on the best-seller lists). He also wrote plays, and on Wednesday, 10 of his one-acts will open the season at the Atlantic Theater Company in Chelsea in the program ''An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein,'' directed by Karen Kohlhaas. The playwright David Mamet, who helped found the theater, knew Mr. Silverstein, as he describes in this reminiscence.

WHERE I come from, Shel Silverstein was a demigod. I come from Chicago.

We high school kids would see him on State Parkway and say, ''Do you know who that is . . .'' And we all knew who it was.

He was Hugh Hefner's sidekick, he was the great cartoonist, he lived with Hef at the Playboy Mansion, in a riot of delight. He wrote songs for Johnny Cash, he wrote the world's most popular children's books, he did the liner notes for ''Gibson and Camp at the Gate of Horn,'' the world's best folk album.

I met him when he took up writing plays.

We were in Chicago, at the Goodman Theater, and Greg Mosher was staging an evening of one-acts: one by me, one by Elaine May and one by Shel -- three expat Chicagoans, back in Chicago.