Maurice Sendak

In this article we are going to address the issue of Maurice Sendak, which is of utmost importance in the current context. Maurice Sendak has been the subject of debate and analysis in different areas, and its relevance is undeniable in today's society. From different perspectives and approaches, Maurice Sendak has generated interest and reflection, which invites us to deepen its study and understanding. Along these lines, we will explore various aspects related to Maurice Sendak, with the aim of providing a comprehensive and enriching vision on this topic.

"Sendak" redirects here. For the surname, see Sendak (surname).

Maurice Sendak
Sendak in 2009
Sendak in 2009
BornMaurice Bernard Sendak
(1928-06-10)June 10, 1928
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
DiedMay 8, 2012(2012-05-08) (aged 83)
Danbury, Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation
  • Artist
  • illustrator
  • writer
Alma materArt Students League of New York
Period1947–2012
Genre
  • Children's literature
  • picture books
PartnerEugene David Glynn (1957–2007; Glynn's death)[1]
Parents
RelativesJack Sendak (brother)

Maurice Bernard Sendak (/ˈsɛndæk/; June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. Born to Polish-Jewish parents, his childhood was impacted by the death of many of his family members during the Holocaust. Sendak illustrated many works by other authors, such as the Little Bear books by Else Holmelund Minarik. He achieved acclaim with Where the Wild Things Are (1963), the first of a trilogy followed by In the Night Kitchen (1970) and Outside Over There (1981).[2] He designed sets for operas, notably Mozart's The Magic Flute.[3]

In 1987, Sendak was the subject of an American Masters documentary, "Mon Cher Papa".[4] In 1996, he received the National Medal of Arts.[5] Per Margalit Fox, Sendak, "the most important children's book artist of the 20th century", "wrenched the picture book out of the safe, sanitized world of the nursery and plunged it into the dark, terrifying and hauntingly beautiful recesses of the human psyche."[3]

Early life

Sendak was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Polish Jewish immigrants Sadie (née Schindler) and Philip Sendak, a dressmaker.[6][7][8] Maurice said that his childhood was a "terrible situation" due to the death of members of his extended family during the Holocaust which introduced him at a young age to the concept of mortality.[9] His love of books began when, as a child, he developed health issues and was confined to his bed.[10] He was "enthralled by Mickey Mouse (who was created the year of his birth), by American comics, and by the bright lights of Manhattan."[2] When he was 12 years old, he decided to become an illustrator after watching Walt Disney's film Fantasia (1940).[11]

Maurice was the youngest of three siblings, born five years after Jack Sendak and nine years after Natalie Sendak.[12] Jack also became an author of children's books, two of which were illustrated by Maurice in the 1950s.[13] In 2011, Maurice was working on a book about noses, and he attributed his love of the olfactory organ to his brother Jack, who—in Sendak's opinion—had a great nose.[14]

At the New York Art Students League, he took a class from John Groth, who taught him “a sense of the enormous potential for motion, for aliveness in illustration … He himself … showed how much fun creating in it could be.”[15]

Career

The characters from Where the Wild Things Are caused controversy due to their grotesque appearance which parents alleged to be too scary for children.[3]

Author and illustrator

Maurice Sendak began his professional career in 1947 with illustrations for a popular science book, Atomics For the Millions.[3] One of Sendak's first professional commissions, when he was 20 years old,[14] was creating window displays for the toy store FAO Schwarz. The store's children's book buyer introduced him to Ursula Nordstrom, children's book editor at Harper & Row, who would go on to edit E. B. White's Charlotte's Web (1952) and Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy (1964).[15] This led to his first illustrations for a children's book, for Marcel Aymé's The Wonderful Farm (1951).[3] His work appears in eight books by Ruth Krauss, including A Hole is to Dig (1952), which brought wide attention to his artwork.[16][17] He illustrated the first five books in Else Holmelund Minarik's Little Bear series.[18] The Maurice Sendak Foundation cites Krauss, Nordstrom and Crockett Johnson as mentors to Sendak.[19] He made his solo debut with Kenny's Window (1956).[3] He published the Nutshell Library (1962), consisting of Alligators All Around, One Was Johnny, Pierre and Chicken Soup With Rice.[3] Sendak said of Nordstrom: “She treated me like a hothouse flower, watered me for ten years, and hand-picked the works that were to become my permanent backlist and bread-and-butter support.”[15]

Sendak gained international acclaim after writing and illustrating Where the Wild Things Are (1963), edited by Nordstrom. It features Max, a boy who "rages against his mother for being sent to bed without any supper".[20] The book's depictions of fanged monsters concerned some parents when it was first published, as his characters were somewhat grotesque in appearance.[3] Sendak explained that the title came from the Yiddish phrase phrase vilde chaya, or “wild beast.”: “It’s what almost every Jewish mother or father says to their offspring, ‘You’re acting like a vilde chaya! Stop it!’”[15] It won the Caldecott Medal, considered the highest honor for picture books in the United states.[3] Humphrey Carpenter and Mari Prichard write that "it is generally considered unequaled in its exploration of a child's fantasy world and its relation to real life."[2] It was adapted into an opera by Oliver Knussen and a film by Spike Jonze.[15]

Sendak later recounted the reaction of a fan:

A little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children's letters–sometimes very hastily–but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, "Dear Jim: I loved your card." Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said: "Jim loved your card so much he ate it." That to me was one of the highest compliments I've ever received. He didn't care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.[21]

Sendak illustrated The Bat Poet (1964), a children's book by Randall Jarrell.[22] When Sendak saw a manuscript of Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories, the first children's book by Isaac Bashevis Singer, on the desk of an editor at Harper & Row, he offered to illustrate it. It was first published in 1966 and received a Newbery Honor. Sendak was enthusiastic about the collaboration. He once wryly remarked that his parents were "finally" impressed by their youngest child when he collaborated with Singer.[23]

Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More To Life (1967), inspired by Sendak's dog, Jennie, was his favorite of his books. He called it “my requiem for —an unsentimental, even comic requiem to a shrewd, stubborn, loyal, and lovable creature whose all consuming passion was food."[15]

In the Night Kitchen (1970) is "a further exploration of a boy's fantasy world, this time closely based on Sendak's childhood memories of New York life."[2] Fox writes "the huge, flat, brightly colored illustrations" are "a tribute to the New York of Mr. Sendak’s childhood, recalling the 1930s films and comic books he adored all his life."[3] Sendak explained: "It was an homage to everything I loved: New York, immigrants, Jews, Laurel and Hardy, Mickey Mouse, King Kong, movies. I just jammed them into one cuckoo book.”[15] It has often been censored for its drawings of a young boy prancing naked through the story. The book has been challenged in several U.S. states including Illinois, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Texas.[24] In the Night Kitchen regularly appears on the American Library Association's list of "frequently challenged and banned books". It was listed number 21 on the "100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–1999".[25]

Outside Over There (1981) the story of a girl named Ida and her sibling jealousy and responsibility. Her father is away, so Ida is left to watch her baby sister, much to her dismay. Her sister is kidnapped by goblins and Ida must go off on a magical adventure to rescue her. At first, she is not really eager to get her sister and nearly passes right by her when she becomes absorbed in the magic of the quest. In the end, she rescues her sister, destroys the goblins, and returns home committed to caring for her sister until her father returns. This rescue story includes an illustration of a ladder leaning out of the window of a home, which according to one report, was based on the crime scene in the Lindbergh kidnapping, "which terrified Sendak as a child."[14][3] Carpenter and Prichard write, "More dark in subject matter than Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen, it was published on both adult and children's book lists, and showed a marked change in illustrative style, entirely away from the comic-strip manner that was always partly apparent in the other two."[2] Sendak included a cameo from one of his favorite composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.[15] A collection of his essays and lectures were published as Caldecott & Co.: Notes on Books and Pictures (1988).[26]

In 1993, Sendak published We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy, about the AIDS crisis.[27] Later in the 1990s, Sendak approached playwright Tony Kushner to write a new English-language version of the Czech composer Hans Krása's Holocaust opera Brundibár which, remarkably, had been performed by children in the Theresienstadt concentration camp.[14] Kushner wrote the text for Sendak's illustrated book of the same name, published in 2003. The book was named one of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Illustrated Books of 2003. Gregory Maguire wrote: “In a career that spans 50 years and counting, as Sendak’s does, there are bound to be lesser works. Brundibar is not lesser than anything.”[28]

In 2011, Sendak adapted his Sesame Street short Bumble Ardy into a children's book, his first in over thirty years, and ultimately his last published work before his death.[29] My Brother's Book (2013) was published posthumously. Dwight Garner wrote "Its charms are simmering and reflective ones. This moral fable may find its largest audience among adults."[30]

Other projects

Sendak was an early member of the National Board of Advisors of the Children's Television Workshop during the development stages of the Sesame Street television series. He created two animated stories for the series: Bumble Ardy, an animated sequence with Jim Henson as the voice of Bumble Ardy, and Seven Monsters[31]. Sendak later adapted Seven Monsters into the book Seven Little Monsters, which itself would be adapted into an animated television series.

Sendak wrote an animated musical, Really Rosie, featuring the voice of Carole King and broadcast in 1975. It is available on video (usually as part of video compilations of his work). An album of the songs was also produced. He contributed the opening segment to Simple Gifts, a Christmas collection of six animated shorts shown on PBS in 1977 and later released on VHS in 1993. He adapted Where the Wild Things Are for the stage in 1979. Additionally, he designed sets and costumes for many operas and ballets, including the award-winning Pacific Northwest Ballet 1983 production of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, Glyndebourne Festival Opera's productions of Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges (1982), Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges and L'heure espagnole (1987) and Knussen's adaptation of Sendak's own Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life (1985), Houston Grand Opera's productions of Mozart's The Magic Flute (1981) and Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel (1997), Los Angeles County Music Center's 1990 production of Mozart's Idomeneo, and the New York City Opera's productions of Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen (1981) and Mozart's The Goose of Cairo (1984).[15]

In 2003, Chicago Opera Theatre produced Sendak and Kushner's adaptation of Brundibár. In 2005, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, in collaboration with Yale Repertory Theatre and Broadway's New Victory Theater, produced a substantially re-worked version of the Sendak-Kushner adaptation. In 2004, Sendak worked with the Shirim Klezmer Orchestra in Boston on their project Pincus and the Pig: A Klezmer Tale. This Klezmer version of Prokofiev's best-known musical story for children, Peter and the Wolf, featured Maurice Sendak as the narrator. He also illustrated the cover art.[15]

Margalit Fox writes that "His art graced the writing of other eminent authors for children and adults, including Hans Christian Andersen, Leo Tolstoy, Herman Melville, William Blake and Isaac Bashevis Singer."[3]

Personal life

Sendak mentioned in a September 2008 article in The New York Times that he was gay and had lived with his partner, psychoanalyst Eugene David Glynn (February 25, 1926 – May 15, 2007), for 50 years before Glynn's death in May 2007. Revealing that he never told his parents, he said, "All I wanted was to be straight so my parents could be happy. They never, never, never knew."[32] Sendak's relationship with Glynn was referenced by other writers before (including Tony Kushner in 2003)[33] and Glynn's 2007 death notice identified Sendak as his "partner of fifty years".[1] After his partner's death, Sendak donated $1 million to the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services in memory of Glynn, who treated young people there. The money will go to a clinic which is to be named for Glynn.[34]

Sendak was an atheist. In a 2011 interview, he said that he did not believe in God and explained that he felt that religion, and belief in God, "must have made life much easier . It's harder for us non-believers."[35]

In the early 1960s, Sendak lived in a basement apartment at 29 West 9th Street in Greenwich Village where he wrote and illustrated Wild Things. Later he had a nearby pied-à-terre at 40 Fifth Avenue where he worked and stayed occasionally after moving full-time to Ridgefield, Connecticut.[14]

He said: "I don't really believe that the kid I was has grown up into me. He still exists somewhere in the most graphic, plastic, physical way for me. I have tremendous concern for, and interest in, him. I try to communicate with him all the time. One of my worst fears is losing contact."[2]

Influences

Maurice Sendak drew inspiration and influences from a vast number of painters, musicians, and authors. Going back to his childhood, one of his earliest memorable influences was actually his father, Philip Sendak. According to Maurice, his father related tales from the Torah; however, he would embellish them with racy details. Not realizing that this was inappropriate for children, young Maurice was frequently sent home after retelling his father's "softcore Bible tales" at school.[36] Gregory Maguire says Sendak "felt he was relative to people like Emily Dickinson and Keats and Henry James and Homer."[37] Margalit Fox wrote: "A largely self-taught illustrator, Mr. Sendak was at his finest a shtetl Blake, portraying a luminous world, at once lovely and dreadful, suspended between wakefulness and dreaming. In so doing, he was able to convey both the propulsive abandon and the pervasive melancholy of children’s interior lives. ... His visual style could range from intricately crosshatched scenes that recalled 19th-century prints to airy watercolors reminiscent of Chagall to bold, bulbous figures inspired by the comic books he loved all his life, with outsize feet that the page could scarcely contain. He never did learn to draw feet, he often said."[3]

Sendak had other influences growing up, including Walt Disney's Fantasia and Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse was created in the year Sendak was born, 1928, and Sendak described Mickey as being a source of joy and pleasure for him while growing up.[38] He has been quoted as saying, "My gods are Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, Mozart. I believe in them with all my heart." Of Dickinson, he said: "I have a little tiny Emily Dickinson so big that I carry in my pocket everywhere. And you just read three poems of Emily. She is so brave. She is so strong. She is such a passionate little woman. I feel better." Of Mozart, he said, "When Mozart is playing in my room, I am in conjunction with something I can't explain. ... I don't need to. I know that if there's a purpose for life, it was for me to hear Mozart."[39]

Death and tributes

A mural in Wicker Park, Chicago, alludes to Sendak's passing.

Sendak died at Danbury Hospital in Danbury, Connecticut on May 8, 2012, at age 83, due to complications from a stroke. In accordance with his wishes, his body was cremated and his ashes were scattered at an undisclosed location.[3][40] Spike Jonze recalled "I would look at those pictures—where Max's bedroom turns into a forest—and there was something that felt like magic there."[11] Jonze directed the film adaptation Where the Wild Things Are and the documentary Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak (both 2009). Author R. L. Stine called Sendak's death "a sad day in children's books and for the world."[41] Tom Hanks said "Maurice Sendak helped raise my kids—all four of them heard 'The night Max wore his wolf suit...' many times."[11]

Stephen Colbert, who interviewed Sendak in one of his last public appearances, said of Sendak: "We are all honored to have been briefly invited into his world."[41] On a January 2012 episode of The Colbert Report, Sendak taught Colbert how to illustrate and provided a book blurb for Colbert's spoof children's book, I Am a Pole (And So Can You!)[42] The book was published on the day of Sendak's passing with his blurb: "The sad thing is, I like it!"[43]

The 2012 season of Pacific Northwest Ballet's The Nutcracker, for which Sendak designed the set and costumes, was dedicated to his memory.[44]

His final book, Bumble-Ardy, was published eight months before his death. A posthumous picture book, My Brother's Book, was published in February 2013.[3] (2009). Jonze's film Her was dedicated in memory of Sendak and Where the Wild Things Are co-star James Gandolfini.[45] Richard Robinson, executive of Scholastic Corporation, said "Maurice Sendak captured childhood in brilliant stories and drawings that will live forever."[11] Gregory Maguire, author of Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation wrote that Sendak realized "Children are full humans, compromised only by their lack of vocabulary and practice in reporting how they live. But they live as fully as Sendak himself lived right up to his last months and weeks and hours. ... ome more sentimental scrap of me (that he would have scorned) hopes he is settling down to some nice bowl of chicken soup with rice with Emily Dickinson or Herman Melville. Though they have been impatient to meet him in person for a very long time, no doubt they’ll greet him as a fellow king.

By now, Sendak is finding his dinner waiting for him.

And it is still hot."[46]

Maurice Sendak Collection

In 1968, Sendak lent the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, the bulk of his work including nearly 10,000 works of art, manuscripts, books, and ephemera. From May 6, 2008, through May 3, 2009, the Rosenbach presented There's a Mystery There: Sendak on Sendak. The major retrospective of over 130 pieces pulled from the museum's vast Sendak collection featured original artwork, rare sketches, never-before-seen working materials, and exclusive interview footage.

Exhibition highlights included:

  • Original color artwork from books such as Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, The Nutshell Library, Outside Over There, and Brundibar
  • "Dummy" books filled with lively preliminary sketches for titles like The Sign on Rosie's Door, Pierre, and Higglety, Pigglety, Pop!
  • Never-before-seen working materials, such as newspaper clippings that inspired Sendak, family portraits, photographs of child models and other ephemera
  • Rare sketches for unpublished editions of stories such as Tolkien's The Hobbit and Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, and other illustration projects
  • Unique materials from the Rosenbach collection that relate to Sendak's work, including an 1853 edition of the tales of the Brothers Grimm, sketches by William Blake, and Herman Melville's bookcase
  • Stories told by the illustrator himself on topics like Alice in Wonderland, his struggle to illustrate his favorite novels, hilarious stories of Brooklyn, and the way his work helps him exorcise childhood traumas

Since the items had been on loan to the Rosenbach for decades, many in the museum world expected that the Sendak material would remain there. But Sendak's will specified that the drawings and most of the loans would remain the property of the Maurice Sendak Foundation. In 2014, representatives of his estate withdrew the works, saying they intended to follow Sendak's directive in his will to create "a museum or similar facility" in Ridgefield, Connecticut, where he lived, and where his foundation is based, "to be used by scholars, students, artists, illustrators and writers, and to be opened to the general public" as the foundation's directors saw fit.

The Rosenbach filed an action in 2014, in state probate court in Connecticut, contending that the estate had kept many rare books that Sendak had pledged to the library in his will. In a ruling in Connecticut probate court, a judge awarded the bulk of the disputed book collection to the Sendak estate, not to the museum.

In 2018, the Maurice Sendak Foundation chose the University of Connecticut to house and steward the Collection. Under an agreement with, and supported by a grant from, the Foundation, Sendak's original artwork, sketches, books, and other materials (totaling close to 10,000 items) will be housed at UConn's Archives and Special Collections in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. UConn will also host exhibits of and digitize Sendak materials. The Foundation will retain ownership of the materials.[47]

Awards and honors

In 2012, School Library Journal named Where the Wild Things Are as its top picture book based on reader surveys. The librarian who conducted it observed that there was little doubt what would be voted number one and highlighted its designation by one reader as a watershed, "ushering in the modern age of picture books". Another called it "perfectly crafted, perfectly illustrated ... simply the epitome of a picture book" and noted that Sendak "rises above the rest in part because he is subversive."[20][48] Sendak received the third biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration in 1970, recognizing his "lasting contribution to children's literature".[49][50] He received one of two inaugural Astrid Lindgren Memorial Awards in 2003, recognizing his career contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest sense". The citation called him "the modern picture-book's portal figure" and the presentation credited Where the Wild Things Are with "all at once the entire picture-book narrative ... thematically, aesthetically, and psychologically."[51] In the U.S., he received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal from the professional children's librarians in 1983, recognizing his "substantial and lasting contributions to children's literature". At the time it was awarded every three years.[52] Only Sendak and the writer Katherine Paterson have won all three of these premier awards.

Sendak has two elementary schools named in his honor, one in North Hollywood, California, and PS 118 in Brooklyn, New York. He received an honorary doctorate from Princeton University in 1984.

On June 10, 2013, Google featured an interactive doodle where visitors could click on the video go triangle to see an animated movie-ette of Max and Sendak's other main characters.[59] On the cusp of the 125th anniversary of the Brooklyn Public Library it was revealed on November 16, 2022 that the most checked-out book in the collection was Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are.[60]

List of works

Author and illustrator

  • Kenny's Window (1956)
  • Very Far Away (1957)
  • The Sign on Rosie's Door (1960)
  • The Nutshell Library (1962)
    • Alligators All Around
    • Chicken Soup with Rice
    • One Was Johnny
    • Pierre
  • Where the Wild Things Are (1963)
  • Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life (1967) ISBN 0-06-028479-X
  • In the Night Kitchen (1970)
  • Fantasy Sketches (1970)
  • Ten Little Rabbits: A Counting Book with Mino the Magician (1970)
  • Some Swell Pup or Are You Sure You Want a Dog? (written by Maurice Sendak and Matthew Margolis, and illustrated by Maurice Sendak) (1976)
  • Seven Little Monsters (1977)
  • Outside Over There (1981)
  • Caldecott and Co: Notes on Books and Pictures (an anthology of essays on children's literature) (1988)
  • The Big Book for Peace (1990)
  • We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy (1993)
  • Maurice Sendak's Christmas Mystery (1995) (a box containing a book and a jigsaw puzzle)
  • Bumble-Ardy (2011) ISBN 0-06-205198-9, ISBN 978-0-06-205198-1
  • My Brother's Book (2013) ISBN 0-06-223489-7, ISBN 978-0-06-223489-6
  • Ten Little Rabbits (2025, published posthumously) ISBN 978-0-241-68865-6

Illustrator only

Collections

Filmography

Selected exhibitions

  • October 13, 2024 - February 17, 2025. Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak at the Denver Art Museum.[63]
  • April 18–September 1, 2024. Wild Things Are Happening: The Art of Maurice Sendak at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
  • March 25, 2021 – July 10, 2021. Maurice Sendak Exhibit and Sale at the Society of Illustrators in New York.[64]
  • June 11, 2013 – August 17, 2013. "Maurice Sendak: A Celebration of the Artist and his Work" at the Society of Illustrators in New York.
  • Permanent. Maurice Sendak Collection at The Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia.
  • 2013–"Maurice Sendak; The Memorial Exhibition." April 2013 "Bowers Museum of California" "The New Britain Museum of American Art'"
  • September 8, 2009 – January 19, 2010. There's a Mystery There: Sendak on Sendak at The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco.
  • October 6, 2009 – November 1, 2009. Where the Wild Things Are: Original Drawings by Maurice Sendak at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York.
  • October 1–30, 2009 "Sendak in SoHo" at AFA Gallery in New York.
  • April 15, 2005 – August 14, 2005. Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak at The Jewish Museum in New York.

References

  1. ^ a b Bruni, Frank (May 24, 2007). "Glynn, Eugene David, M.D." The New York Times.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Humphrey Carpenter; Mari Prichard (1984). The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature. pp. 474–477.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Fox, Margalit (May 8, 2012). "Maurice Sendak, Author of Splendid Nightmares, Dies at 83". The New York Times.
  4. ^ "About Maurice Sendak". American Masters.
  5. ^ "Maurice Sendak". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  6. ^ "Maurice Sendak Papers". de Grummond Children's Literature Collection. University Libraries. The University of Southern Mississippi. Retrieved June 12, 2013. With Biographical Note.
  7. ^ Wood, Sura (September 3, 2009). "Author-illustrator Maurice Sendak's work is the subject of a show at the Contemporary Jewish Museum". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  8. ^ Braun, Saul (June 7, 1970). "Sendak Raises the Shade on Childhood; Maurice Sendak says he's quite verbal, 'but I lie a lot'". The New York Times. Retrieved October 13, 2009. The New York Times Magazine, Page 216. (subscription required)
  9. ^ Inskeep, Steve (September 26, 2006). "Why Maurice Sendak Puts Kid Characters in Danger". Morning Edition. NPR. Retrieved September 23, 2011.
  10. ^ Roth, Matthue (October 16, 2009). "Maurice Sendak" Archived May 23, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Patheos (patheos.com).
  11. ^ a b c d "Maurice Sendak 50 Years, 50 Works, 50 Reasons". Walt Disney Family Museum.
  12. ^ "bio".
  13. ^ Saxon, Wolfgang (February 4, 1995). "Jack Sendak, 71, a Writer of Surrealist Books for Children". The New York Times.
  14. ^ a b c d e Stephens, Lannyl (May 16, 2018). "They Lived on West 9th Stree: Maurice Sendak". www.villagepreservation.org/. Village Preservation. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Wild Things Exhibition Guide". Denver Art Museum.
  16. ^ "Ruth Krauss, 91, Dies; A Writer for Children". New York Times. July 15, 2024.
  17. ^ "Maurice Sendak, 1928-2012: His Imagination Redefined Children's Literature". Voice of America. November 19, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  18. ^ Hulbert, Ann (November 26, 2003). "How Wild Was the Work of Maurice Sendak? Do his books celebrate wildness—or teach us to master it?". Slate. Retrieved October 13, 2009.
  19. ^ "The Maurice Sendak Foundation - About". The Maurice Sendak Foundation. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  20. ^ a b "SLJ's Top 100 Picture Books" Archived November 23, 2016, at the Wayback Machine (poster presentation of reader poll results). A Fuse #8 Production. School Library Journal. 2012. Retrieved June 13, 2013.
  21. ^ Davies, Luke (December 3, 2011). "Hergé and me". Brisbane Times.
  22. ^ Hardwick, Elizabeth (May 3, 1964). "Parable of the Present". The New York Times.
  23. ^ Stavans, Ilan (ed.), Isaac Bashevis Singer: An Album, The Library of America, 2004, pp. 70–71.
  24. ^ "Censorship Bibliography — Memories of Childhood: Six Centuries of Children's Literature at the de Grummond Collection Archived June 16, 2013, at archive.today (June–September 2000). de Grummond Children's Literature Collection. USM Libraries. Retrieved June 12, 2013.
  25. ^ "100 most frequently challenged books: 1990–1999". Banned & Challenged Books. American Library Association.
  26. ^ Cart, Michael (January 29, 1989). "IN SHORT; NONFICTION". The New York Times.
  27. ^ Neumeyer, Peter (October 3, 1993). "What Shall We Tell The Children?". Los Angeles Times.
  28. ^ Maguire, Gregory (November 16, 2003). "CHILDREN'S BOOKS; Children's Chorus". The New York Times.
  29. ^ Fassler, Joe (September 20, 2011). "Maurice Sendak on the First Book He's Written and Illustrated in 30 Years". The Atlantic. Retrieved June 23, 2023.
  30. ^ Garner, Dwight (February 14, 2013). "A Farewell, Whispered and Roared". The New York Times.
  31. ^ "The Grover Monster-Jean Marsh Cartoon Special: A complete history". April 25, 2025. Retrieved April 25, 2025.
  32. ^ Cohen, Patricia (September 9, 2008). "Concerns Beyond Just Where the Wild Things Are". The New York Times.
  33. ^ Kushner, Tony (December 5, 2003). "How Grim Can It Be?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved October 13, 2009.
  34. ^ Bermudez, Caroline (August 12, 2010). "Famed Children's Book Author Gives $1-Million for Social Services". The Chronicle of Philanthropy. XXII (16): 28.
  35. ^ On Maurice Sendak's death (May 8, 2012), the host of NPR's Fresh Air, Terry Gross, aired 2003 and 2011 interviews she had conducted with Sendak. In September 2011 she said, "You're very secular, you don't believe in God." Sendak replied, "I don't," and elaborated. Among other things, he remarked, "It must have made life much easier . It's harder for us non-believers."
  36. ^ "Maurice Sendak". NNDB. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  37. ^ "An Inside Look at Maurice Sendak's 'Wonderful Magic'". National Public Radio. May 8, 2012.
  38. ^ Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak (April 15, 2005 – August 14, 2005). Exhibition overview and gallery. The Jewish Museum of New York. Retrieved June 12, 2013.
  39. ^ Maurice Sendak: "Where the Wild Things Are". 2004 interview by Bill Moyers. Audio-video with preface and transcript. Now on PBS. PBS (pbs.org).
  40. ^ Barnett, David (June 12, 2012). "Maurice Sendak's British editor: 'I have lost a very, very great friend'". The Guardian.
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Further reading