Sendak, Maurice Bernard

Sendak, Maurice Bernard,1928–2012, American writer and illustrator of children's books, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. Largely self-taught, he was widely acclaimed as the 20th-century's most important childrens' book artist. His illustrations—beautifully drawn, wildly imaginative and stylistically varied, often emotionally complex, and sometimes controversial—appear in dozens of children's books, beginning withThe Wonderful Farm(1951) and includingThe Sign on Rosie's Door(1960) andWhere the Wild Things Are(1963), which he also wrote;In the Night Kitchen(1970);Outside over There(1981); and我们都在转储和杰克和人(1993). From the mid-1980s on, he devoted much of his time to theatrical work, but in 2011Bumble-Ardy,the first children's picture book written and illustrated by him in 30 years, was published. His lyrical and elegiacMy Brother's Book(2013), inspired by his late brother, was published posthumously, as wasPresto and Zesto in Limboland(2018), written with Arthur Yorinks. Sendak illustrated a number of adult works, e.g., Melville'sPierre(1995).

The musical productions Sendak designed include Mozart'sThe Magic Flute,a musical version ofWhere the Wild Things Are,the Metropolitan Opera's production of Prokofiev'sLove for Three Oranges(1985), and the Holocaust-themedA Selection(1999), created with thePilobolus Dance Theater.Brundibar,1938年的儿童歌剧汉斯Krasa并用ginally performed (1943) in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, was directed and designed by Sendak in 2003, with a libretto by TonyKushner; the two also penned the picture bookBrundibar(2003) and then collaborated on a version ofMartinů's 1937 opera,Comedy on the Bridge(2005). Sendak also was the artistic director of his own theater company, the Night Kitchen.

See S. G. Lanes,The Art of Maurice Sendak(1980, repr. 1998), and T. Kushner,The Art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to the Present(2003); studies by A. Sonheim (1991), J. Cech (1995), and J. Cott (2017).

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