A few years ago, Maurice Sendak gave a talk at the Harvard Library where I worked. Having recently assisted on the editorial periphery of one of his projects — a klezmer version of Peter and the Wolf he undertook with my brother-in-law’s band — I was tapped to squire him through the Printing & Graphic Arts department to view a selection of books illustrated by a hero of his, the nineteenth-century artist Randolph Caldecott.
In the books of the late Maurice Sendak, each haunting page represented a doorway into a world of imagination — one that contained trauma and delight in equal measure.
I still love children’s books. Give me a book by David Macaulay to pore over or a chance to revisit my favorite Berenstain Bears books and I’ll be quite content—provided cookies and a snuggly blanket are also factored into the equation. Because, hey, a girl’s got to eat. Also, snuggle. Apparently. The books we read as […]
After iconic children’s book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak died at age 83 in 2012, Sendak’s assistant discovered a fully illustrated manuscript for a picture book called Presto and Zesto in Limboland. Sendak’s editor contacted writer and director Arthur Yorinks, Sendak’s friend and collaborator for forty years, and asked him to complete the story. In […]
