Maurice Sendak

Brooklyn-born Maurice Sendak was born to Sarah (Schindler) and Philip Sendak, first-generation immigrants from Eastern Europe whose trauma he struggled to understand. He learned to address these and other ever-present stressors—the Holocaust, child kidnapping, bullying, and his undisclosed homosexuality—through illustrations and fantasy. He illustrated his first book, Maxwell Leigh and Hyman Ruchlis Eidinoff’s Atomics for the Millions (1947), while in high school, and his first children’s book, Marcel Aymé’s The Wonderful Farm, in 1951. Sendak illustrated more than one hundred books, many of his own creation, received the Caldecott Medal (1964) for Where the Wild Things Are (1963), and numerous other awards for his literary and theatrical contributions. Nat Hentoff (1925–2017), the author of this selection on Sendak, was an award-winning American Jewish writer, newspaper columnist, and jazz advocate.