R.I.P. Maurice Sendak



Author Maurice Sendak won a Caldecott Medal in 1964 for the picture book "Where the Wild Things Are." Most of us grew up with that book and others by Sendak, who is known for adding dark and subversive stories to the mostly sanitary, adult-approved children's books of the time. Sendak died this morning in Connecticut due to complications of a recent stroke.
Roundly praised, intermittently censored and occasionally eaten, Mr. Sendak’s books were essential ingredients of childhood for the generation born after 1960 or thereabouts, and in turn for their children. He was known in particular for more than a dozen picture books he wrote and illustrated himself, most famously “Where the Wild Things Are,” which was simultaneously genre-breaking and career-making when it was published by Harper & Row in 1963.

Among the other titles he wrote and illustrated, all from Harper & Row, are “In the Night Kitchen” (1970) and “Outside Over There” (1981), which together with “Where the Wild Things Are” form a trilogy; “The Sign on Rosie’s Door” (1960); “Higglety Pigglety Pop!” (1967); and “The Nutshell Library” (1962), a boxed set of four tiny volumes comprising “Alligators All Around,” “Chicken Soup With Rice,” “One Was Johnny” and “Pierre.”

Last year, Sendak released “Bumble-Ardy,” the first book both written and illustrated by Sendak in 30 years. A posthumous book, “My Brother’s Book,” is scheduled for release next February. Sendak was 83. Link -via The Daily What

See also: Maurice Sendak’s Pierre With Music By Carole King at NeatoBambino.

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Maurice Sendak's two-part interview on The Colbert Report is simply supurb -- it's well worth finding some way to view them both if you haven't seen them yet.
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A fascinating man that I'm sorry to see lost. Here's the links to his interviews with Colbert, which are very revealing about some of his more unexpected traits:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/406796/january-24-2012/grim-colberty-tales-with-maurice-sendak-pt--1

and

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/406902/january-25-2012/grim-colberty-tales-with-maurice-sendak-pt--2
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...and also check out the 2009 documentary "Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak," a brilliant insight to this genius of a man. Hearing him talk about his books, in addition to his personal struggles and insecurities gave me new-found respect for him. RIP Mr. Sendak.
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