Shel Silverstein’s ‘The Giving Tree’ to Become Author’s First E-Book

This story first appeared in the Feb. 14 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Shel Silverstein never allowed paperback editions of his books, but to mark the 50th anniversary of a particularly prolific year (four of his titles hit stores in 1964), the late author’s iconic story The Giving Tree will become the Silverstein catalog’s first digital release, via HarperCollins on Feb. 18.

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The e-book edition of Tree, which has sold more than 10 million print copies worldwide, acknowledges the reality of the young wired generation. Says Silverstein archivist and nephew Mitch Myers, “It was important to make this amazing book available to kids who primarily use e-readers and tablets and wouldn’t see it otherwise.”