Maurice Sendak, 2011

The Most Wild Thing of All: Maurice Sendak, 1928-2012

But the wild things cried, “Oh, please don’t go– We’ll eat you up–we love you so!” And Max said, “No!” –Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are (1963) In June 2001, I went to hear Maurice Sendak speak at Yale University. A couple of years earlier, I’d started working on a biography of Crockett Johnson,

The Beau Hunks Sextette, Manhattan Minuet (art by Chris Ware)

Children’s Literature + Music = Great Album Covers

Many children’s writers and illustrators have created covers for albums. Below, we’ll look at a dozen or so of these artists. As is ever the case with any art posted on this website, the artwork belongs to the artists. Visit their websites! Buy prints! Buy their books! (I’ve included websites for each artist.) Enjoy! Saul

Maurice Sendak, Bumble-Ardy (2011)

Eat, drink, and be merry

Bumble-Ardy gets adopted by his Aunt Adeline after his “immediate family gorged and gained weight. / And got ate.”  When he throws himself a birthday party without her permission, Aunt Adeline threatens his guests: “Scat, get lost, vamoose, just scram! / Or else I’ll slice you into ham!”  On the next two-page spread, Bumble tells

Crockett Johnson, Harold and the Purple Crayon (1955): cover

Desert Island Picture Books

On her blog today, Anita Silvey asks her “readers to weigh in with their list of five books that they can’t live without or the ones they read again and again.”  So, first, let me encourage you to weigh in over on her blog.  As soon as this post is up, I’ll do the same.

Ursula Nordstrom, 1969

In or Out?: Crockett Johnson, Ruth Krauss, Sexuality, Biography

As I wait to hear back from my editor (latest revision submitted January 1st), I continue to tinker with the biography of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss.  Does my manuscript’s silence on the homosexuality of two important figures – Maurice Sendak (who illustrated nine of Ruth’s books) and Ursula Nordstrom (editor of Ruth, Dave, Maurice) –