The most popular current writer of humorous verse for children, Shel Silverstein was born in Chicago, Illinois, has been married and divorced, has one daughter, and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. His career includes composing popular songs, drawing cartoons, writing many adult articles (several for Playboy), and acting. However, he is best known for his self-illustrated children's poetry. His first such book was Uncle Shelby's Story of Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back (1963), the humorous tale of a lion who turns the tables on hunters. It was followed by The Giving Tree (1964), a story of a parentlike tree that gives endlessly and is endlessly used by its son. Several other such picture books followed, including The Missing Piece (1976), about a circle that goes in search of a missing piece, and its sequel, The Missing Piece Meets the Big O (1981). However, two collections of poetry are probably his best-loved work: Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein (1974), and A Light in the Attic (1981). All of Silverstein's poetry for children employs the language play common to Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. Silverstein is probably the best of the contemporary nonsense poets for children.
Haruki Murakami was born on January 12, 1949 in Kyoto, Japan and studied at Tokyo's Waseda University. He opened a coffeehouse/jazz bar in the capital called Peter Cat with his wife. He became a full-time author following the publication of his first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, in 1979. He writes both fiction and non-fiction works. His fiction works include Norwegian Wood, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, The Strange Library, and Men Without Women. Several of his stories have been adapted for the stage and as films. His nonfiction works include What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. He has received numerous literary awards including the Franz Kafka Prize for Kafka on the Shore, the Yomiuri Prize for The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and the Jerusalem Prize. He has translated into Japanese literature written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Raymond Carver, Truman Capote, John Irving, and Paul Theroux.
