MAURICE SENDAK, American writer and illustrator of children’s literature was born (d: 2012). He was best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963. He decided to become an illustrator after viewing Walt Disney’s film Fantasia at the age of twelve; however, his love of books came at an early age when he developed health problems and was confined to his bed.

One of his first professional commissions was to create window displays for the toy store F.A.O. Schwartz. His illustrations were first published in 1947 in a textbook titled Atomics for the Millions by Dr. Maxwell Leigh Eidinoff. He spent much of the 1950s working as an artist for children’s books, before beginning to write his own stories. Sendak gained international acclaim after writing and illustrating Where The Wild Things Are, although the book’s depictions of fanged monsters concerned some parents when it was first released, as his characters were somewhat grotesque in appearance.

Sendak’s seeming attraction to the forbidden or nightmarish aspects of children’s fantasy made him a subject of controversy. The monsters in the book were actually based on relatives who would come to weekly dinners. Because of their broken English and odd mannerisms, they were the perfect basis for the monsters in Sendak’s book. Before Where The Wild Things Are, Sendak was best known for illustrating Else Holmelund Minarik’s Little Bear series of books. When Sendak saw a manuscript of Zlateh the Goat, the first children’s story by Isaac Bashevis Singer, on the desk of an editor at Harper & Row, he offered to illustrate the book, which was first published in 1966 and received a Newberry Award. Sendak was delighted and enthusiastic about the collaboration. He once wryly remarked that his parents were finally impressed by their youngest child when he collaborated with Singer.

His book In The Night Kitchen, first published in 1970, has often been subjected to censorship for its drawings of a young boy prancing naked through the story. The book has been challenged in several American states including Illinois, New Jersey, Minnesota and Texas. In the Night Kitchen regularly appears on the American Library Association’s list of “frequently challenged and banned books.” It was listed number #21 on the “100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-1999.” His 1981 book Outside Over There, is the story of a girl, Ida, and her sibling jealousy and responsibility. Her father is away and so Ida is left to watch her baby sister, much to her dismay. Her sister is kidnapped by goblins, and Ida must go off on a magic adventure to rescue her. At first, she’s not really eager to get her sister and nearly passes her sister right by when she becomes absorbed in the magic of the quest. In the end, she rescues her baby sister, destroys the goblins and returns home committed to caring for her sister until her father returns home.

Sendak was an early member of the National Board of Advisors of the Children’s Television Workshop during the development stages of the television series Sesame Street. He also wrote and designed an animated sequence for the series, Bumble Ardy, based on his own book, the story of a pig, and with Jim Henson as the voice of Bumble Ardy, along with three others; “Seven Monsters” (which never aired), “Up & Down”, and “Broom Adventures”.

Sendak produced an animated television production based on his work titled Really Rosie, featuring the voice of Carole King, which was broadcast in 1975 and is available on video (usually as part of video compilations of his work). An album of the songs was also produced. He contributed the opening segment to Simple Gifts, a Christmas collection of six animated shorts shown on PBS TV in 1977 and later issued on VHS in 1993. He adapted his book Where The Wild Things Are for the stage in 1979.

Additionally, he designed sets for operas and ballets, including the award-winning (1983) Pacific Northwwest Ballet production of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, Houston Grand Opera’s productions of Mozart’s The Magic Flute (1981) and Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel (1997), Los Angeles County Music Center’s 1990 production of Mozart’s Idomeneo, and the New York City Opera’s 1981 production of The Cunning Little Vixen.

In the 1990s, Sendak approached playwright Tony Kushner to write a new, English version of the Czech composer Hans Krasas’s children’s opera Brundibar. Kushner wrote the text for Sendak’s illustrated book of the same name, published in 2003. The book was named one of the New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Illustrated Books of 2003. In 2003, Chicago Opera Theatre produced Sendak and Kushner’s adaptation of Brundibar. In 2005, Berkeley Repertory Theater, in collaboration with Yale Repertory Theater and Broadway’s New Victory Theater, produced a substantially reworked version of the Sendak-Kushner adaptation. He also created the children’s television program Seven Little Monsters.

Sendak mentioned in a September 2008 article in The New York Times that he was gay, and lived with his partner, psychoanalyst Eugene Glynn for fifty years before Dr. Glynn’s death in May 2007. Revealing that he never told his parents, he said, “All I wanted was to be straight so my parents could be happy. They never, never, never knew.” Sendak’s relationship with Glynn had been mentioned by other writers before (e.g., Tony Kushner in 2003). In Glynn’s 2007 New York Times obituary, Sendak was listed as Dr Glynn’s “partner of fifty years”. Sendak donated $1 million to the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services to memorialize Glynn, who had treated young people there. The gift will name a clinic for Glynn. Sendak passed away from complications of a stroke in 2012.