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Return to Sendak

To refer to Maurice Sendak as a children's-book illustrator is rather like calling Babe Ruth a right-fielder or Frank Sinatra a pop singer. Even before the publication of Where the Wild Things Are, it was obvious that this Brooklyn-born visionary (who speaks fluent Yiddish, collects Mickey Mouse memorabilia, and is devoted to the music of Mahler) was one of those artists who not only communicate but inspire devotion. The Wild Things, which has sold, in twenty-five years, a staggering three million copies, has somewhat overshadowed the fact that Sendak has published nearly one hundred books. This month, after five years of passionate application, Farrar, Straus and Giroux will publish Sendak's latest, Dear Mili, an original tale by Wilhelm Grimm written in 1816 and never before published.

Interestingly, most of Sendak's key works have had less than auspicious receptions. "I'm afraid that my adult audience sometimes needs time to catch up with me," he mused recently. Grownup reviewers thought The Wild Things overly terrifying, and many librarians were so aghast at the inclusion of Mickey's little "mickey" in the innovative In the Night Kitchen that they refused to shelve the book. "If there are shadows in what I do," says Sendak, "it's because they belong there."

RICHARD MERKIN