he lived not far from me when i was a kid. i remember once he was coming to our library to give a talk and i got all excited and the librarian told me the talk wasn't for kids!! i was so sad.
That librarian was a jerk, imo.
I have spent a lot of time with his books in the past few years, and I don't ever get tired of looking at them.
― Respectfully, Tyrese Gibson (Nicole), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 19:18 (twelve years ago) link
those pierre illustrations are very blake.
― a single goddamn marshmallow fucked me for LIFE (Hunt3r), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 19:27 (twelve years ago) link
our miss geeta with a nice piece:
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/05/maurice-sendak-rip/
― scott seward, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 01:12 (twelve years ago) link
this for all time:
“Too many parents and too many writers of children’s books don’t respect the fact that kids know a great deal and suffer a great deal,” Sendak told The New Yorker’s Hentoff. “It’s not that I don’t see the naturalistic beauty of a child. I’m very aware of that beauty, and I could draw it…. But I am trying to draw the way children feel — or rather, the way I imagine they feel. It’s the way I know I felt as a child.”
― scott seward, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 01:13 (twelve years ago) link
RIP, Big Mo.
― Fule Runnings (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 02:58 (twelve years ago) link
Loved Sendak, his books and illustrations for others. The Animal Family by Randal Jarrel was a favorite, and his drawings were a really great match in tone. This picture from Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories was one of the most compelling and scary pictures:
http://forward.com/workspace/assets/images/articles/sendak2-092409.jpg
It's the combination of menace and jollity that makes the Devil scary! He really nails it. And how much his face stands out compared to the subtle relief of his body, hooves, wings. Why the gnomes? Why the menorah & c? I don't remember a thing about that book except this picture, it's burned in me forever.
He's my favorite kind of curmudgeon, and an amazing craftsman.
― Dale, dale, dale (Abbbottt), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 03:06 (twelve years ago) link
I just read a book about Caldecott-winning artists and the chapter on how he made Where the Wild Things Are was incredible. He spent seven years refining it. It started out as Where The Wild Horses Are. He'd put it down for months, pick it up again, rework it, over and over. Dig this dummy book he made during the process, it's just one inch tall and looks like the inside of a zeotrope:
http://28.media.tumblr.com/l9tDR5PyCnegx1em3qes9CCKo1_500.png
― Dale, dale, dale (Abbbottt), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 03:12 (twelve years ago) link
damn, rip
― Chris S, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 03:15 (twelve years ago) link
Both of my kids went through phases of loving "In the Night Kitchen," far more than they ever did "Wild Things." I think it's because it's just so batshit insane they didn't know what to make of it.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 03:15 (twelve years ago) link
^ went through this phase. also hilarious due to wang.
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 03:36 (twelve years ago) link
Where The Child Wangs Are.
RIP!
― wan brujo (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 03:43 (twelve years ago) link
in the wang kitchen
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 04:11 (twelve years ago) link
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/donaldparsley/wangkitchensm.jpg
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 04:18 (twelve years ago) link
<3
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 04:20 (twelve years ago) link
that interviews overview on npr this afternoon was soo good!
― Fellini.Kuti, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 04:51 (twelve years ago) link
i kinda think 'outside over there' is his masterpiece, and not just because i remember my first encounter with it in second grade with such queasy vividness that for years i thought i'd dreamed it, since no actual kids' book like that could possibly exist.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 05:27 (twelve years ago) link
it may be. that or wild things.
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 05:30 (twelve years ago) link
i think what really puts across that devil picture is the way he's got one hand in his pocket. who else would think to draw him like that?
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 05:35 (twelve years ago) link
here's a piece i wrote about maurice sendak for wired:
― geeta, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:05 (twelve years ago) link
great interview: http://believermag.com/issues/201211/?read=interview_sendak
[The phone rings. It is NPR letting Sendak know that a recent interview with him has run and is generating a lot of responses. He praises Terry Gross, the interviewer.]
MS: The only thing she said wrong was that her favorite interviews had been me and that stupid fucking writer. Salman Rushdie, that flaccid fuckhead. He reviewed me on a full page in the New York Times, my book Dear Mili. He hated it. He is detestable. I called up the Ayatollah, nobody knows that. What else shall we talk about?
gotta say i agree with his comments on Roald Dahl.
― JoeStork, Monday, 5 November 2012 20:14 (eleven years ago) link