From the Hermitage: Maurice Bernard Sendak (June 10, 1920 – May 8, 2012) Treated the Child as a “Complicated Creature” By Larry Ginsberg Christopher Moore once said: “Children see magic because they look for it.” Maurice Sendak expounded on the magic: “There is no such thing as fantasy unrelated to reality.” “Children do live in fantasy and reality, they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do,” and therefore “you must never illustrate exactly what is written. You must find a space in the text so that the picture can do the work” and you must always remember as an author that: “You cannot write for children, they’re much too complicated. You can only write books that are of interest to them.” So, we read Where the Wild Things Are. They’re Outside Over There and In the Night Kitchen. There are Seven Little Monsters who are Very Far Away in the Nutshell Library. “Children are tough, though we tend to think of them as fragile. Childhood is not easy. We sentimentalize children but they know what’s real and what’s not.” Maurice Sendak did not patronize his audience but wrote books to inspire and interest them. Though a very successful author and illustrator of books dedicated to children for the most part, Maurice Sendak’s life was tough. Born in Brooklyn to Polish-Jewish parents, he was affected by the death of many family members during the Holocaust. In 2008, he came out as gay in a New York Times article and lived with his partner, Eugene Glynn, for 50 years, but could never tell his parents. “All I wanted was to be straight so my parents could be happy. They never, never, never knew.” In 2011, Sendak came out as an atheist. Religion and a belief in G-d “must have made life much easier, it’s harder for us nonbelievers.” For 40 years he lived in Ridgefield dying of stroke complications in Danbury Hospital on May 8, 2012. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered. Aside from his brilliant solo career as a Caldecott Medal-winning author and illustrator, he collaborated with:  Else Holmelund Minarik as illustrator for the Little Bear series  Isaac Bashevis Singer as illustrator for Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories, for which he received a Newbery Award  His older brother, Jack Sendak  Carole King for the musical Really Rosie  The Houston Grand Opera, creating sets for The Magic Flute  Tony Kushner adapt ‘Brundibar’, a Czech Children’s Opera  Also, with Ursula Nordstrom and Ruth Krauss.

But it was the children he charmed, and they ate him up literally: “A little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters – sometimes very hastily – but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a wild thing on it. I wrote, ‘Dear Jim: I loved your card.’ Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said: ‘Jim loved your card so much he ate it.’ That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.”