Renowned author/illustrator Maurice Sendak passed away on Tuesday, May 7, 2012, at age 83 due to complications from a recent stroke. Sendak’s career in literature stretched back to 1951, when an introduction to Harper & Row children’s book editor Ursula Nordstrom led to work illustrating The Wonderful Farm by Marcel Aymé. He illustrated works for several other authors, including Else Holmelund Minarik’s Little Bear series, before launching his own career as author/illustrator in 1956 with Kenny’s Window.
Perhaps his most famous work was Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963, as a young boy named Max is sent to bed without supper, triggering a fantastic journey to a mysterious island where he is declared the king of the Wild Things. Among his other famous works are In the Night Kitchen, Higglety Pigglety Pop!, and The Nutshell Library (comprised of four tiny volumes Alligators All Around, Chicken Soup with Rice, One Was Johnny, and Pierre).
Sendak’s work has been adapted for the stage and screen on numerous occasions, with the most notable being the 2009 live-action/animation hybrid adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are (which spawned a similar hybrid short based on Higglety Pigglety Pop!). His art was also turned into animated form in several Scholastic animated shorts, and in the Nelvana series Little Bear and Seven Little Monsters.
