Maurice Sendak essays

Maurice Sendak essays Maurice Sendak is one of the best known childrens author/illustrators in the world today. This extremely gifted genius was actually cultivating within his childhood many different memories from his youth which influenced the masterpieces he has created. Maurice Sendak was born June 10, 1928 in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were poor immigrants from Poland who came to America before World War I. Many of his relatives died in the Holocaust which was an important influence upon his childhood. Sendak is the youngest of three children. He grew up under constant fear of his own death because he was very sick during childhood and was not allowed to go outside often. Therefore he was left alone with his imagination. Sendak grew up in a family of storytellers. His father told stories that were considered not for children. They were nightmare stories of death, love affairs, and other Jewish tales. His brother wrote stories and his sister bound them into books which they then sold on the sidewalks. He didnt like school much and wasn't good at sports, but he loved to read and often asked his sister to get him books from the library. His sister gave him his first book; Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper. He loves the book and still has it today. As a young adult, he liked adventure stories by authors such as Herman Melville. He began his work as an illustrator while he was still in high school. He helped in drawing the pictures from the comic strip, Mutt and Jeff into comic books (Gregory 2). He went to art school at the Art Students' League to continue his education. When Sendak was only nineteen years old, he co-authored his very first published book, Atomics for the Millions that was published in 1947. He graduated from high school in 1946. It was during this time that Maurice was introduced to the great children's editor Ursula Nordstrom. She was...