The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco has a special exhibit titled "Sendak on Sendak." I grew up on Maurice Sendak books, then studied his writing in a Children's Literature course at the U! I'm a big fan!
Maurice Sendak is also coincidentally the very same age as my Dad and Mickey Mouse (born in 1928, all 3 turned 80 years old in 2008). When I learned about Maurice Sendak's deep insecurities despite his enormous success as an author and illustrator, I knew I liked this guy!
In fact, one of Sendak's favorite poets, which doesn't surprise me a bit, is Emily Dickinson. He found her reclusive nature quite inspired!
"What I learned from Dickinson," Sendak told an interviewer, "is, Don't open the door don't let them in!" And Sendak enacts his version of an imaginary domestic drama from the Dickinson home in Amherst: "Emily, Emily, you promised you'd come for a snow ride with us! What are you doing sulking upstairs?' 'Don't listen, don't care, don't let them in!' And she stayed upstairs. She didn't listen to them. She kept the world OUT."
With that little dialogue I can see why Sendak is considered the "best of the best" in the children's literary world! He understands people! Especially those who are haunted or flawed or fearful or insecure (I think that covers most all of us at times!) Maybe he relates to "neurosis" because of his own anxieties, which he readily admits to. Whatever the explanation, I find it quite likeable.
So, yes, Sendak is a classic curmudgeon, but his surly nature is pretty endearing! The exhibit in San Francisco was okay, a small collection though, and personally, I think Sendak deserved even better!
"It's really about the spirit and I find that hard to talk about, because you know, I'm a cynic. I don't know from the spirit, and yet I do. And that is a great puzzle of my life...Something deeper is involved; deeper in myself than I know what it is." -Maurice Sendak
