jack
The Legendary Troll Kingdom
RIP MAURICE
Maurice Sendak, the children’s author and illustrator best known for the 1963 classic “Where the Wild Things Are,” died Tuesday in Danbury, Conn., reportedly of complications from a stroke. He was 83.
The Brooklyn-born author, the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland, lost many family members in the Holocaust and spent time in bed with health problems as a child. After seeing the Disney movie “Fantasia” at the age of 12, an experience that influenced his work throughout his career, he decided to become an illustrator.
During the 1950s, Sendak illustrated children’s books by other authors before starting to write his own stories. When “Where the Wild Things Are” came out in 1963, its monstrous characters raised concerns from some parents, but the book quickly brought him international acclaim, including the prestigious Caldecott Medal. The book was adapted into a feature film in 2009.
But Sendak wrote and illustrated many other books, including the controversial 1970 work “In the Night Kitchen,” about a boy who dreams of helping a baker create a cake in a bizarre kitchen. The book's hero, Mickey, is naked in illustrations throughout the book, and it has freequently been challenged and banned. Other Sendak works include “Outside, Over There” (1981), the story of a girl who is left to care for you younger sister and reluctantly goes to her rescue when the child is abducted by goblins.
Maurice Sendak, the children’s author and illustrator best known for the 1963 classic “Where the Wild Things Are,” died Tuesday in Danbury, Conn., reportedly of complications from a stroke. He was 83.
The Brooklyn-born author, the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland, lost many family members in the Holocaust and spent time in bed with health problems as a child. After seeing the Disney movie “Fantasia” at the age of 12, an experience that influenced his work throughout his career, he decided to become an illustrator.
During the 1950s, Sendak illustrated children’s books by other authors before starting to write his own stories. When “Where the Wild Things Are” came out in 1963, its monstrous characters raised concerns from some parents, but the book quickly brought him international acclaim, including the prestigious Caldecott Medal. The book was adapted into a feature film in 2009.
But Sendak wrote and illustrated many other books, including the controversial 1970 work “In the Night Kitchen,” about a boy who dreams of helping a baker create a cake in a bizarre kitchen. The book's hero, Mickey, is naked in illustrations throughout the book, and it has freequently been challenged and banned. Other Sendak works include “Outside, Over There” (1981), the story of a girl who is left to care for you younger sister and reluctantly goes to her rescue when the child is abducted by goblins.
