Maurice Sendak

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Maurice Bernard Sendak (born June 10, 1928 in New York City , New York - † May 8, 2012 in Danbury , Connecticut ) was an American illustrator , children's book author and stage painter . He became known for a new realism in children's book literature, which at first met with great opposition. His most popular work is Where the Wild Things Are .

Life

Sendak was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1928, the youngest of three children of a family of Polish-Jewish immigrants. His mother was Sadie Sendak, nee Schindler, his father was Philip Sendak ; this came from the small Polish town of Zambrów near Białystok . Sendak sr. met Sadie Schindler, daughter of a rabbi and also immigrant, in the USA. She had no school education and was supposed to earn money in the USA and later join her parents. Philip Sendak began working as a tailor in East New York and then in Brooklyn's Jewish Quarter.

From an early age, Maurice Sendak wanted to be a book illustrator. As a weak and ailing child, he often stayed at home, so his sister brought him adventure books from the library. At the age of six he drew his first children's book with his brother Jack, who was five years his senior. At the age of twelve he decided to become an illustrator after watching the cartoon Fantasia (1940) by Walt Disney Studios. He hated school. While still at Lafayette High School , he illustrated books.

After graduating from high school, he became a decorator at FAO Schwarz , New York's largest toy store on Fifth Avenue . There he read children's books and especially learned to appreciate the classic illustrations by the British draftsmen George Cruikshank and Randolph Caldecott . In his evening course he attended the Art Students League of New York . The children's book editor at Harper and Brothers , Ursula Nordstrom , discovered Sendak in 1950 and promoted him. The children's book author Ruth Krauss and her husband Crockett Johnson gave him valuable advice. In the 1950s and 60s, his illustrations met resistance from editors, critics, and librarians. His drawing technique of sketching shadows and spaces with crossed lines was “too European” for them, which Sendak interprets as “too ugly”. His realism and violence in his stories were also offended. Only gradually did the realization and with it the recognition gain acceptance that violence was not an end in itself, but was used in a psychoanalytical sense as an offer to cope with and strengthen the children. This concept was implemented by way of example and influential by him in the children's book Where the Wild Things Are (Where The Wild Things Are) , so he succeeded in 1963, the breakthrough at international level. For Sendak himself the main character of this book, the daydreaming Max, remained his “dearest creation”. In 2009, after years of delay, the film version of the book was released .

The US news magazine Time called him in 1964 the " Picasso of the children". On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of his death, Felix Bartels wrote for the national daily newspaper Neues Deutschland that Sendak's central theme was the transition from the external world to a fantastic or dreamlike one, where everything has meaning . His most recent book, Brundibár, is an adaptation of the children's opera of the same name , which was performed by children in the Theresienstadt concentration camp from 1943 to 1944 and was intended to give them consolation. Sendak's friends included the writer Tony Kushner and the graphic artist Tomi Ungerer . In addition to his illustrations for children's books, Sendak also worked on sets for opera productions.

Sendak, whose childlessness and close relationship with his dogs has long been the subject of interviews and articles, first mentioned in 2008 that he was gay and had lived with the psychoanalyst Eugene Glynn (1926-2007) for 50 years until his death in 2007. He never told his parents this: “All I wanted was to be straight so my parents could be happy. They never, never, never knew. ”A coming-out would also have damaged the career of a children's book author in the 1950s and 1960s. Tony Kushner mentioned Sendak's relationship with Glynn back in 2003 in a Guardian newspaper article . When asked “Did your family know about your significant other?” Sendak answered in an interview with Emma Brockes : “Yes and no. They never wanted to get to know him. But of course they knew I was gay. At least my father. My mother lived in a world of her own. It was not discussed. "

Maurice Sendak died on May 8, 2012 in Danbury, Connecticut, aged 83, of complications from a stroke .

Adaptations

In 2009 Spike Jonze directed the film Where the Wild Things Are , based on Sendak's book of the same name.

In July 2020, the US company Apple announced that it had acquired the adaptation rights to Sendak's works from the Maurice Sendak Foundation. The aim of this multi-year contract is to develop content for the video-on-demand service Apple TV + . The long-standing Sendak cooperation partner Arthur Yorinks is supposed to help .

Works (selection)

Books

Sendak's oeuvre amounts to over 100 books.

  • Kenny's window. 1956.
  • The Sign on Rosie's Door. 1960.
    • German by Ute Haffmans: The sign on Rosi's door. Diogenes, Zurich 1976.
  • Where The Wild Things Are. 1963.
  • Hector Protector, and As I Went Over the Water: Two Nursery Rhymes. 1965.
    • German by Hans Manz : Hektor Protektor and when I came across the ocean. Diogenes, Zurich 1971.
  • Higglety Pigglety Pop! or, There Must Be More to Life. 1967.
  • In the Night Kitchen. 1970.
  • Some Swell Pup. 1976.
  • Seven Little Monsters. 1977.
  • Outside Over There. 1981.
  • At Grandpa's House. 1985.
    • German: In grandfather's house .
  • We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy: Two Nursery Rhymes with Pictures . 1993.
  • Coldecott and Co. 1998.
    • German by Anne Hamilton et al.: Coldecott & Co. Diogenes, Zurich 1999.
    • New edition: Coldecott & Co. Thoughts on books and pictures . Aladin Verlag, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-8489-2022-8 .
  • with Tony Kushner : Brundibár . 2002.
  • Brumble Ardy . 2012.

Book illustrations

Illustrations for Else Holmelund Minarik's series The Little Bear :

  • German edition 1959 - The little bear.
  • The little bear visiting
  • German edition 1961 - Father Bear comes home. Sauerländer, Düsseldorf, ISBN 978-3-7941-0026-2 .
  • Little Bear's Friend .
    • German edition 1962 by Erdmut Gross - The little bear and his girlfriend. Aladin Verlag, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-8489-2021-1 .
  • A kiss for the little bear. Sauerländer, Düsseldorf, ISBN 978-3-7941-0264-8 .

Other illustrations:

Awards

Quotes

“There should be more serious books for children. It is humiliating to a child to write like an idiot. I think you can write anything for children, much more freely than for adults, to whom you have to tell too many lies. "

- Maurice Sendak

“Childhood is a terrible state. You can't defend yourself. It's always a miracle that we survive and grow up. "

- Maurice Sendak, 2004

literature

  • Selma G. Lanes : The Art of Maurice Sendak. Harry N. Abrams, New York 1980, ISBN 0-8109-1600-2 .
  • Reinbert Tabbert (Ed.): Maurice Sendak. Picture book artist. Bouvier, Bonn 1987, ISBN 3-416-01836-2 .
  • Tony Kushner : The Art of Maurice Sendak. 1980 to the present. Abrams, New York 2003, ISBN 0-8109-4448-0 .
  • Jonathan Cott: There's A Mystery There. The Primal Vision of Maurice Sendak. Doubleday, New York City, USA 2017.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Margalit Fox: Maurice Sendak, Children's Author Who Upended Tradition, Dies at 83. In: The New York Times . May 8, 2012, accessed May 8, 2012 .
  2. ↑ Susan Heller Anderson: Ursula Nordstrom, 78, a Nurturer Of Authors for Children, Is Dead . In: New York Times. October 12, 1988.
  3. ↑ a b c page no longer available , search in web archives: Where the wild guys live. Visiting children's book author Maurice Sendak. on: SWR2 . December 28, 2004, p. 1.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / db.swr.de
  4. ↑ a b Because Max had to go to bed on an empty stomach. In: The world . June 10, 2008.
  5. ↑ a b Eerie trains . In: Der Spiegel . No. 16 , 1970, pp. 222 ( Online - Apr. 13, 1970 ).
  6. ↑ Felix Bartels : Building the world within. In: New Germany . Neues Deutschland Druckerei und Verlag GmbH, May 8, 2017, accessed on October 25, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Patricia Cohen: Concerns Beyond Just Where the Wild Things Are . In: The New York Times. September 9, 2008.
  8. ↑ Tony Kushner: Tony Kushner celebrates Maurice Sendak, an old friend . In: The Guardian. December 6, 2003.
  9. ↑ “I refuse to lie to children”, in: Nido 2/2013, pp. 120–128, here p. 126.
  10. ↑ My parents, these monsters. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . May 9, 2012, p. 25.
  11. ↑ Peter White: Apple Strikes Overall Deal With 'Where The Wild Things Are' Creator Maurice Sendak's Foundation. In: Deadline.com . Penske Media Corporation, July 6, 2020, accessed July 8, 2020 .
  12. ↑ The adults were frightened. In: FAZ . December 14, 2013, p. 36.)
personal data
SURNAME Sendak, Maurice
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sendak, Maurice Bernard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American illustrator, children's book author, and stage painter
DATE OF BIRTH June 10, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York
DATE OF DEATH May 8, 2012
Place of death Danbury , Connecticut