Almanac of Story Tellers: Maurice Sendak

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of June 10th

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    It is the 161st day of the year, leaving 204 days remaining in 2022.

   

    On this date in 1928, the author and illustrator Maurice Sendak was born.

    Sendak told his stories with words and art. He not only wrote and illustrated his own books for children, but he also illustrated books for other authors. 

    In its obituary, The New York Times called Sendak "the most important children's book artist of the 20th Century.

    He started his career while a college student, drawing backgrounds for comic books, and for window displays in toy stores in New York City. He then drew for some 80 books written by others, including Marcel Aymé and Randall Jerrell. Many of those works were successful, and Sendak started writing his own books. His first was Kenny's Window in 1956.

 

     But easily his most successful and famous work is Where The Wild Things Are, now considered a classic of children's literature. It won the Caldecott Medal in 1964 for the "most distinguished American picture book for children." It has since been adapted into several short films, an opera, and a full-length motion picture. 

    It concerns a young boy, Max, who after stomping around his house, is sent to bed without supper, after his mother calls him "wild thing." His bedroom then transforms into a jungle, and he sails away to an island, where he is declared the king of the wild things.

    He later wrote two sequels, In the Night Kitchen and Outside Over There, to create a trilogy. All in all, he both wrote and illustrated more than 20 books. In addition to the Caldecott Medal, he won a National Book Award, a Hans Christian Andersen award, and several others.

    He died in 2012.