I was 9 years old when Playboy published Shel Silverstein's first travel piece in 1957. I was 20 when Playboy published his last in 1968. So this book for me is a tour of the sexual/pop culture memes of my youth as promoted by Playboy. I guess I lived in a different world. I get the sense somehow that Shel Silverstein wasn't wholly buying into the Playboy fantasy, either -- there's a certain arched eyebrow in his depiction of sexual freedom and sophisticated consumption even as he makes himself

I was 9 years old when Playboy published Shel Silverstein's first travel piece in 1957. I was 20 when Playboy published his last in 1968. So this book for me is a tour of the sexual/pop culture memes of my youth as promoted by Playboy. I guess I lived in a different world. I get the sense somehow that Shel Silverstein wasn't wholly buying into the Playboy fantasy, either -- there's a certain arched eyebrow in his depiction of sexual freedom and sophisticated consumption even as he makes himself the central character of his drawings. It's fun, though. He's a great artist with a great sense of humor. I wish he hadn't gone on safari in Africa and killed a water buffalo. Or watched cock fights. Or tried to be a bullfighter. But he was on the Playboy payroll and had to fulfill the lifestyle they were promoting, sell the products of Playboy's advertisers which paid his salary. His other adult work, particularly his book Different Dances shows that he has a deeper, darker side.



I think he was aware of his role, aware that pop culture is by its nature a pile of hype. In one of his cartoons, he quotes a Londoner: "Of course you can't find 'Swinging London'! There are only a handful of people in London who have enough money to swing. The rest of us are busy doing articles and picture stories and television shows on 'Swinging London' so that you desperate Americans will come swarming over here looking for the action, and spend enough money to beef up our economy so we can afford to swing a bit!"



Later, looking back, Shel Silverstein told Hugh Hefner "So the travel for me has almost no value anymore. Seeing what? They're only places with people like myself. ... If I've created an image of a world traveler and adventurer, and the fact is I f**king want to sit down and grow roses with Suzie-Q -- I'm gonna do it."



He quit traveling for Playboy, and he lived another 30 years. Maybe he found Suzie Q.