RIP Maurice Sendak

Maurice Sendak has passed:

“Maurice Sendak, the renowned children’s book author who revolutionized the genre, has died. He was 83.
Sendak died on Tuesday from complications caused by a recent stroke, his editor told the New York Times. He lived in Ridgefield, Conn., and was hospitalized in nearby Danbury. According to the Associated Press, Sendak had suffered the stroke on Friday.”

Very sad. As a child I loved his books, most notably Where the Wild Things Are. I was also a huge fan of the polarizing film by Spike Jonze. If you haven’t seen the short documentary on Sendak called Tell Them Anything You Want, you are in for a treat. Made around the time of the Jonze film, it’s a wonderful portrait of a complicated man who was a true original.

He will be missed.

Sad. I remember reading Where the Wild Things Are a ridiculous number of times.

Sigh.

Rest in Piece.

rip

Gregory Markopoulos shot a portrait of Maurice Sendak ifor his 16mm portrait film “Galaxie” (1966)

I’ve been reading Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen quite a bit (they like both, so they request it often), and I think they’re terrific books. I loved them as a kid, but I really appreciate them as an adult, too—which is a bit strange because they’re for children. It’s interesting to compare the book and movie of WTWTA. The movie explicitly deals with psychological issues (for example, the psychological effects of anger and aggression), whereas the book is more indirect and subtle. In a way, the movie was good for drawing these aspects out, but for the book is much better because of the its subtle approach. (Sorry, Santino.)

Jazz – You should watch this doc. It really shows how complex and interesting Sendak was. I think part of his magic as a writer of children’s books is that he treated kids like adults.

My favorite works by him;

He will be missed. R.I.P.

@Santino

I’ll look for it on netflix.

He was hilarious on The Colbert Report. Colbert and he actually managed to have a discussion (mostly one-sided, but that’s understanble) and I found his views on the children’s book to be very interesting and enlightened (“What is it?”). At least we had him.