You Make Everything Groovy, Wild Thing.
8:39AM ON
09/11/2008
BY
Matthew Lawrence
There’s a really interesting profile in yesterday’s New York Times about Maurice Sendak, the author/illustrator responsible for Where The Wild Things Are and In The Night Kitchen, along with dozens of other books.
The piece, which describes Sendak as a square-shaped gnome, dives deeper into the reclusive artist’s life than anything else I’ve ever read, or thought to read, about him. Did you know that he’s gay, for instance? Or that he had a heart attack when he was thirty-nine and didn’t tell anybody because his mother was dying at the time? Or that he admires people like Emily Dickinson for their ability to be alone? Or that he claims to hate people?
I didn’t even know that Spike Jonze was adapting Where The Wild Things Are into a movie, let alone one with Catherine Keener and James Gandolfini and Paul Dano as Alexander.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:15AM
Nomi Says:
Matthew,
I don’t know if it’s online or not, but when Brian Selznick accepted his Caldecott Award, he described in detail how Maurice Sendak was kind and helpful to him during a very empty low time in his creative life.
Hornbook included the texts of the acceptance speech for the Newberry and Caldecott (and maybe the Coretta Scott King) award winning writers.
Maurice Sendak is an amazing person. Brian Selznick is too.
Thank, Matthew, for this link.
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September 11th, 2008 at 2:21PM
Henry Doyle Says:
Alexander? I could swear the only human in Where The Wild Things Are is Max.
Let the wild rumpus start!
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