William Steig

William Roberto Montoya Dante Alighieri Steig (November 14, 1907 – October 3, 2003) was the author of the critically acclaimed literary epic Shrek, widely regarded to be one of the most remarkable works of fiction of the age in the ranks of Lord of the Rings and Paradise Lost.

Early life and childhood

William was born to an aristocratic family, the son of wealthy socialites Winston and Wanda Steig. Unfortunately however, his parents were cousins and as the the result of the inbreeding, William was born quite deformed in both body and mind. After he ate the family cat, his parents, not wanting to offend any of their wealthy aristocratic friends, took William and cast him into a nearby lake. He washed up on a riverbank near a forrest and was abducted by a wolf which sort to devour him but he was rescued by a tribe of highly advanced squirrels who raised him in the forrest. The squirrels taught him to read, write and forrage.

Quest of Self-Discovery

At the age of fifteen, William decided he wanted to live among humans and discover what it meant to be a man.

After getting kicked out of rehab for trying to make a nest in Amy Winehouse's hair, he went on to try and find his parents only to discover that they were in fact dead. They died of shame after Lord Marlborough Cavendish and his wife caught them eating meat with their salad forks during a dinner party at Buckinton Hall. It had been a long week.

The Cambridge Years

After visiting his parents graves, William, who was highly intelligent as the result of being raised by ingenious squirrels, applied for a position at Cambridge. Naturally with his brilliant mind he was excepted. His fellow students at Cambridge, including the now famous Philip Pullman have described William as being "Charismatic, intelligent, witty and eccentric, filled with all the intellect of Greek scholars and all the passion of the wildeness." His eccentricities such as swinging on the chandeliers whilst crying "AAAAAAAAAAA!" also drew attention, as did his habit of climbing the rooves and eating pigeons.

It was whilst at Cambridge that he began writing what was later to be regarded as his magnum opus; the stirring fantasy novel that was Shrek.

Publishing sensation

Several decades later, in 1990, Steig published Shrek!. Naturally it took the Western world by storm. Critics raved, praising Steig as "the Milton of the twentieth century" and declaring his book "a shining achievement, an odyssey in the ranks of Dante's Inferno and The Hobbit."

One critic wrote:

“ There is something of Hans Anderson's power to evoke and Tolkien's ability to control ”

While another said:

“ An evocative work of Gothic fiction, Shrek! contains all the moralistic brilliance of the Grimm Brothers and all of HP Lovecraft's bizarre genius and originality. ”

Other critics, shockingly, were not so kind. An anonymous user of LOLForum@ED blasphemously commented:

“ tihs sux lulz ”

Death and legacy

Steig's long and vigorous life came to a tragic end when he perished of natural causes on October 3, 2003. There was a national day of mourning to honor his demise. Steig's wife, Zelda Farqelharsen-Steig, had this to say:

“ None shall miss dear Willy more than I. He was a brilliant man, talented and eccentric and full of the vibrancy of life and yet like the best artists, tortured by a constant need for self-betterment. He was too good for this world and we shall all miss him dearly. ”

Following Steig's death, Andrew Adamson wrote Shrek 2 in his memory, an unofficial sequel to Shrek! in the vein of Paradise Regained and Snowball's Chance. Author Joanne Harris also wrote a biography of Steig entitled Conquering the Ogre Within.