RIP. I don’t know if it’s still on the museum circuit, but was a fantastic Sendak exhibit at the SF Jewish museum a couple of years ago. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Apparently some of his older relatives felt caricatured by the wild things and didn’t speak to him for years.
Today is the publication date of Stephen Colbert’s latest book, which he first announced during his interview with Sendak this last winter. The timing of Sendak’s death begs the question, “Is Stephen Colbert responsible for the death of Maurice Sendak?”
djw, I saw a Sendak exhibit in Philly years ago, probably the same one–it was old family photographs, and seriously his aunts and uncles looked exactly like the Wild Things–square widely-spaced teeth, huge mouths, squat bodies, and so on. I don’t think the diet and lifestyle of the late 19th C in deep rural peasant Eastern Europe was conducive to svelte healthyness, to forgive them. But if they were also horrible people, well. . . .
{ 12 comments }
J. Otto Pohl 05.08.12 at 1:26 pm
But, _Where the Wild Things Are_ will live on for many, many generations as a great book.
djw 05.08.12 at 2:40 pm
RIP. I don’t know if it’s still on the museum circuit, but was a fantastic Sendak exhibit at the SF Jewish museum a couple of years ago. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Apparently some of his older relatives felt caricatured by the wild things and didn’t speak to him for years.
marcel 05.08.12 at 2:43 pm
Today is the publication date of Stephen Colbert’s latest book, which he first announced during his interview with Sendak this last winter. The timing of Sendak’s death begs the question, “Is Stephen Colbert responsible for the death of Maurice Sendak?”
Barry Freed 05.08.12 at 2:46 pm
Wonderful man. Wonderful book. Wonderful books. Sad.
Shelley 05.08.12 at 4:02 pm
As a writer, I rejoiced in Maurice Sendak’s total triumph in the hilarious interview with Stephen Colbert.
Farewell to a friend to children.
christian_h 05.08.12 at 4:38 pm
RIP.
swearyanthony 05.08.12 at 5:43 pm
“There are so many beautiful things in the world I will have to leave when I die.”
“Live your life, live your life, live your life.”
both from his final NPR interview last year: http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=140435330&m=140632760
Just a warning. The interview will almost certainly make you cry.
A writer on Maddow’s blog had the best obituary. It’s not “Maurice Sendak died”. It’s “Maurice Sendak lived”.
rea 05.08.12 at 7:32 pm
I will have a bowl of chicken soup with rice in his memory.
common reader 05.08.12 at 8:01 pm
djw, in one of the two Fresh Air interviews, Sendak affirms basing the wild things on his uncles and aunts, whom he described as “horrible people.”
Tedra 05.08.12 at 8:37 pm
I’m so sad about this.
M31 05.09.12 at 12:44 am
djw, I saw a Sendak exhibit in Philly years ago, probably the same one–it was old family photographs, and seriously his aunts and uncles looked exactly like the Wild Things–square widely-spaced teeth, huge mouths, squat bodies, and so on. I don’t think the diet and lifestyle of the late 19th C in deep rural peasant Eastern Europe was conducive to svelte healthyness, to forgive them. But if they were also horrible people, well. . . .
John P 05.14.12 at 7:02 pm
How about an interview with jolly old Maurice Sendak? (link to boingboing). Worth it just for his answer to those who asked about a sequel to wild things.
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