Maurice Sendak

Golan Moskowitz (Tulane University)

Ed. by Dainy Bernstein, University of Pennsylvania
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 10 Jun 1928
Died 8 May 2012
Activity 1948-c. 2012

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Children's/Young Adult writer
Illustrator

Resources

Sendak's Works

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Maurice Sendak, remembered by many as the most important picture-book artist of his time, championed the idea that children are more intuitive, discerning, and resilient than most adults believe them to be. Sendak was an autodidactic creative visionary whose awards included the 1964 Caldecott Medal, the 1970 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the 1983 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, a 1996 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Sendak was a gay man and a child of Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants who faced the Depression and mourned the Nazis’ destruction of their families during his own youth. His work challenged conventional idealizations of modern childhood as a time of “simplicity”, “innocence”, and “sweetness”. Instead, his creative visions…

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3066 words

Citation: Moskowitz, Golan. "Maurice Sendak". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 November 2023 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4011, accessed 25 November 2024.]