Maurice Sendak

Golan Moskowitz (Tulane University)
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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…

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 29 March 2024.]

4011 Maurice Sendak 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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