Shel Silverstein's Houseboat

May 31, 2026

Peace and love and houseboat.

There are few authors I love more than Shel Silverstein and the fact that the man who wrote Where The Sidewalk Ends, Falling Up, A Light In The Attic and the lyrics to A Boy Named Sue lived on a houseboat, should come as no surprise. He was a true bohemian and lived a very falling up lifestyle there on and off during the 1960s and 1970s.

He purchased the boat in 1967 and helped turn the Sausalito boat community into an epicenter for counterculture figures. It was kind of like the Chelsea Hotel of the West Coast but more boats and more sun. Shel wrote a bunch of his classic books there and would invite bands to come and jam.

Other artists in the community included:

Painter and artist Jean Varda (Agnes Varda’s uncle). She made a short film about him where you can see more of the houseboat community. Its also just a damn good film so I highly suggest checking it out.
Alan Watts, the famous philosopher. He lived on a ferry he named the Vallejo. Watts and Varda would host dinner and costume parties.
Otis Redding the famous singer. He lived on one of his promoters boats while recovering from throat surgery.
Allen Ginsberg also spent time there which makes sense.

The boat went on the market in 2020 for $783,000 and the photos below are the remodels of the home but you can still get a good idea of what it would’ve been like to live on it.

If you scroll to the video at the bottom, you can see what the boat looked like when Shel lived there.