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HarperCollins Children's Books has announced the fall 2011 release of a collection of never-before published Shel Silverstein poems and illustrations. Not yet titled, the book will share the same format as the late author's previous poetry collections, Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, and Falling Up. These and other children's books by Silverstein, who died in 1999, have sold more than 25 million hardcover copies in the U.S. alone and have been translated into more than 30 languages.

Senior executive editor Antonia Markiet began working with the author in the 1970s, after his editor Edite Kroll, who now handles foreign rights for Silverstein's estate, left the company (then Harper & Row). Kroll had become Silverstein's editor when Ursula Nordstrom, who initially discovered his work in Playboy, retired in 1973. Markiet, who edited 2005's Runny Babbit, Silverstein's first posthumously published book, is currently working with Silverstein's family to select poetry and artwork for the new collection, which she says "will contain between 120 and 130 poems, in line with Shel's previous three poetry collections."

Given the author's creativity and output, there is no dearth of material. "Every time Shel did a collection, he had more material than could fit in one book, so he'd put aside the extra material and take it out when he began another book, and would again end up with more than he could possibly use," Markiet recalls. Twelve previously unpublished poems were included in HarperCollins' 2004 30th-anniversary edition of Where the Sidewalk Ends, and another 12 in A Light in the Attic Special Edition, released last fall.

"There is a wealth of material in the archives, and so many fans still write to us and to Shel's family saying how important his work is to them, that the family decided it was the right time to consider another book from that material," says Markiet of the new anthology. She explains that the Silverstein family is carefully considering all the work in the poet's archives to compile the collection, along with members of the HarperCollins staff.

"We've just started the process, so this is very new," she says. "We're talking about the poems, and reading them aloud to each other. And we're looking at visuals. Shel had already created boards for some spreads, so our direction is clear. We're all enjoying it immensely and are very excited to be able to have this opportunity."

And the new project has obviously stirred up fond memories of working with Silverstein decades ago. "When I began working with Shel, I was quite young and shy, and he was always very kind to me," Markiet recalls. "That man was such a perfectionist—in the best way possible. He worked so hard, changing a line here, trying a different word there. It always had to be exactly right. He knew that a poem had to work in two ways: when children read it to themselves and when it was read aloud. I learned a lot from him."

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