A short life of the author
Maurice Sendak (1928–2012) was born on 10 June 1928 in Brooklyn, New York, to Polish-Jewish immigrant parents. Many of his relatives died in the Holocaust.
Life and Career
Sendak illustrated over fifty books by other authors before publishing Where the Wild Things Are (1963), which he wrote and illustrated. The story — about Max, a boy sent to bed without supper who sails to an island of monsters and becomes their king — was initially controversial. Critics worried it would frighten children. It won the Caldecott Medal and has never been out of print.
In the Night Kitchen (1970) — in which a boy named Mickey falls out of bed into a kitchen where bakers are making morning cake — is frequently banned because Mickey appears nude. Outside Over There (1981) — a darker, more complex story about a girl who must rescue her baby sister from goblins — completes what Sendak called his trilogy. He also designed opera and ballet sets.
Major Works and Themes
Sendak’s work insists that children have real, complex, sometimes frightening emotional lives, and that good children’s literature must acknowledge this rather than pretend otherwise. His illustrations are dense, crosshatched, and influenced by Dürer, Blake, and early comic art.
Key Works
- Where the Wild Things Are (1963)
- In the Night Kitchen (1970)
Collecting Sendak
Where the Wild Things Are first edition (Harper & Row, 1963) in fine condition with dust jacket brings $5,000–$15,000+. Original artwork at auction brings six figures. Sendak died in 2012.