Maurice Sendak Passes

MAURICE SENDAK, 83, widely considered the most important children’s book artist of the 20th century, died this morning in Danbury, CT, from complications of a recent stroke. The N.Y. Times wrote, “[He] wrenched the picture book out of the safe, sanitized world of the nursery and plunged it into the dark, terrifying and hauntingly beautiful recesses of the human psyche.” Sendak was known for more than a dozen picture books he wrote and illustrated himself, most famously Where the Wild Things Are, through his lifelong publisher Harper & Row in 1963. Last September, a new picture book by Sendak, Bumble-Ardy—the first in 30 years for which he produced both text and illustrations—was published. Director Spike Jonze made the acclaimed 2009 feature film version of Where The Wild Things Are, as well as Tell Them Anything You Want, an HBO documentary about Sendak produced by the late Adam Yauch’s Oscilloscope Laboratories. (5/8p)