Maurice Sneak (1928–2012,) in full Maurice Bernard Sendak, was an American artist and writer. He is best remembered for creating illustrated children’s books such as Where the Wild Things Are that feature playfully grotesque stories and drawings for children.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Sendak was the son of poor Poland-Jewish immigrants. He worked several odd jobs, including a window dresser for the New York toy store FAO Schwarz where he met classic illustrators. He was subsequently commissioned by a publisher to illustrate The Wonderful Farm (1951) by Marcel Ayme. Kenny’s Window (1956) was the first book for which Sendak also wrote the text.
Sendak’s best-known book is Where the Wild Things Are (1963,) which features a mischievous young boy named Max, who imagines a community of scary monsters in a faraway land. Controversial as “a startling departure from the sweetness and innocence that ruled children’s literature,”Where the Wild Things Are was banned by libraries and criticized by psychologists. However, it became one of the best-selling and most enduring children’s books of all time.
Sendak’s other works include In The Night Kitchen (1970,) Outside Over There (1981,) Dear Mili ( 1988,) I Saw Esau (1992,) and We are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy (1993.) He illustrated many other authors’ books, including the Little Bear books by Meindert De Jong, Else Holmelund Minarik, and Randall Jarrell.
Sendak was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for illustration in 1970, and in 2003 he received the first-ever Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for children’s literature.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Maurice Sendak
There must be more to life than having everything.
—Maurice Sendak
Topics: Blessings, Gratitude, Appreciation
Children are tough, though we tend to think of them as fragile. They have to be tough. Childhood is not easy. We sentimentalize children, but they know what’s real and what’s not. They understand metaphor and symbol. If children are different from us, they are more spontaneous. Grown-up lives have become overlaid with dross.
—Maurice Sendak
Children do live in fantasy and reality; they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do.
—Maurice Sendak
We’ve educated children to think that spontaneity is inappropriate. Children are willing to expose themselves to experiences. We aren’t. Grownups always say they protect their children, but they’re really protecting themselves. Besides, you can’t protect children. They know everything.
—Maurice Sendak
To be a healthy person, you have to be sympathetic to the child you once were and maintain the continuity between you as a child and you as an adult
—Maurice Sendak
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