Fond Farewell - Maurice Sendak, (1929 – 2012)


Maurice Bernard Sendak was born in Brooklyn New York on June 10, 1928. His first job as an illustrator was working on the “Mutt and Jeff” comic strip. Famous for his work as a designer of theatrical sets, musician, and most of all self-taught children's book author illustrator of “Where The Wild Things Are” and over a dozen other picture books.
Including:
  • Kenny’s Window - 1956,
  • The Sign on Rosie’s Door -1960
  • The Nutshell Library - 1962
  • Alligators All Around
  • Chicken Soup With Rice
  • One Was Johnny
  • Pierre, I don’t care!
  • Higglety Pigglety Pop! (aka There Must Be More to Life) – 1967
  • In the Night Kitchen - 1970
  • Outside Over There - 1981
  • Where the Wild Things Are – In 1964 was awarded the Caldecott Medal by the American Library Association and which was later developed into a major motion picture in 2009.
  • We Are All in the Dumps With Jack and Guy – 1993
  • Brundibar – 2003
  • Mommy - 2006
  • Bumble-Arty – 2011
  • My Brother’s Book – 2013
22 of his books have been named New York Times best illustrated books of the year.

Cartoonist at work:

Also illustrated works by other authors such as Hans Christian Andersen, Leo Tolstoy, Herman Melville, William Blake, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Marcel Aymé, and Ruth Krauss.

His list of awards included:
  • The Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration
  • The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award
  • The National Medal of the Arts, presented by President Bill Clinton
Took inspiration from his own like and the work of his life partner, Eugene Glynn, who was a psychiatrist specializing in the treatment of youth who had died in 2007. Maurice Sendak died in Danbury, Connecticut from complications of a recent stroke he had had recently. he was 83.