Maurice Sendak

Writer and artist

• Born: June 10, 1928
• Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York
• Died: May 8, 2012

By 2010, Sendak had written and illustrated more than ninety books, many of which won awards, and designed sets for ballets, dramas, and operas.

Early Life

Maurice Sendak (maw-REES SEHN-dak) was born and reared in Brooklyn, the child of Philip and Sarah Sendak, Polish Jewish immigrants. Sendak’s immediate family, he said, was a source of great joy and warmth for him, but his aunts and uncles scared him.

While Sendak went to Lafayette High School in Brooklyn, he drew backgrounds for the Mutt and Jeff comic strips and illustrated a book written in part by his biology teacher, Atomics for the Millions (1947), by Maxwell Eidenoff and Hyman Ruchlis.

In 1947 and 1948, Sendak worked for Timely Service, a window display company. After Sendak’s brother Jack returned from military service, Sendak quit his job, and he, Jack, and their sister Natalie spent time at home fashioning toys based on fairy-tale characters until their father told them to find work. Shortly thereafter, Sendak worked for F. A. O. Schwarz, the toy store, designing window displays. He earned enough money to attend classes at the Art Students League at night. While working for F. A. O. Schwarz, Sendak met Ursula Nordstrom, a children’s book editor at Harper and Brothers. She offered him the chance to illustrate Marcel Aymé’s The Wonderful Farm (1951). In 1952, he illustrated what became a classic of children’s literature, A Hole Is to Dig, by Ruth Krauss. After illustrating others’ books, he wrote and illustrated a book himself, Kenny’s Window, in 1956.

Life’s Work

With the publication ofWhere the Wild Things Are in 1963, reviewers and critics recognized Sendak as one of the most gifted people working in the field of children’s literature. The book won the Caldecott Medal of 1964, given by the American Library Association to the most distinguished children’s picture book published in the United States on the basis of the illustrations. He wrote and illustrated two more books that he considered part of what he called the Wild Things trilogy: In the Night Kitchen (1970) and Outside Over There (1981). In them, he explores the psyche of the child, including such topics as the handling of anger, the fear of night noises, separation anxiety, and sibling rivalry. Because Sendak explores such intimate aspects of a child’s life, he is often considered controversial. His Wild Things trilogy, according to some critics, is his most significant achievement. All three books have a similar structure, home-away-home, and they involve investigations of the innermost workings of a child’s mind. All draw heavily, in story and in illustrations, on Sendak’s own experiences and likes and dislikes. All received accolades and awards.

In 1990, along with Arthur Yorinks, one of Sendak’s protégés and himself an author of children’s books, he cofounded the Night Kitchen, a children’s theater company for which Sendak has designed sets and written, produced, and directed plays. He designed sets and costumes for stage productions, including operas such as The Magic Flute (1980), The Cunning Little Vixen (1981), Idomeneo (1984), Hänsel and Gretel (1996, 1997), and Brundibàr (2003); the ballet The Nutcracker(1983); and several operas based on his own works, including Where the Wild Things Are (1979, 1983) and Higglety, Pigglety, Pop (1984). In 1975, Really Rosie appeared on network television, based on Sendak’s The Sign on Rosie’s Door (1960) and his The Nutshell Library (1962). Expanded, it became a musical stage play produced in 1978 and 1980. On August 31, 1987, PBS first showed an American Masters episode on Sendak, entitled “Maurice Sendak: Mon Cher Papa.” Among other things, it explored his debt to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Labeling Sendak an American Master showed the stature that Sendak and his works had achieved. With animatronics, live performers, and computer-generated imagery, a theatrical film of Where the Wild Things Are, directed by Spike Jonze, debuted in October, 2009.

Significance

By the end of the twentieth century, Sendak had become one of the most popular writers for children in the United States. He has won numerous awards, including the Hans Christian Andersen Medal (1970) for the body of his work and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award (1983) for his contributions to American children’s literature. In 1996, he received the National Medal of Arts, and, in 2003, he received an Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for Literature, given by the Swedish Arts Council. He is praised for his penetrating insight into the minds of children.

Bibliography

Cech, John. Angels and Wild Things: The Archetypal Poetics of Maurice Sendak. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995. Explores the mythology of the child’s inner life.

Kushner, Tony. The Art of Maurice Sendak, 1980 to the Present. New York: Abrams, 2003. This volume extends Selma Lanes’s work in The Art of Maurice Sendak (1980). It covers a great deal of Sendak’s work, including in opera, theater, and ballet. Includes many illustrations.

Lanes, Selma G. The Art of Maurice Sendak. New York: Abrams, 1980. The first full-length study of Sendak. Contains many illustrations, including of the toys Sendak and his siblings made.

Maguire, Gregory. Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation. New York: Morrow, 2009. Focuses on placing Sendak’s artwork in its historical contexts.

Sendak, Maurice. Caldecott & Co.: Notes on Books and Pictures. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1988. A series of Sendak’s essays, including his “Caldecott Medal Acceptance” speech and “Some of My Pictures,” that give insight into Sendak’s ideas about his illustrating and writing and work with ballet.

Sonheim, Amy. Maurice Sendak. New York: Twayne, 1991. Briefly treats Sendak’s life and works through Dear Mili (1988). A good introductory volume.