Maurice Sendak

Maurice Sendak

Maurice Sendak was born on June 10, 1928, to his parents Sarah and Phillip Sendak. Maurice was the youngest of three Sendak children, and considered to be the delicate one for he could become sick easily, and almost died when he was two and a half of the measles. In light of his delicate condition, Maurice was not allowed to go outside so he stayed inside and drew pictures of his favorite cartoon character, Mickey Mouse.

"I hate, I loathe and despise schoolsÐ'....because I hated it so much, but school is bad for you if you have any talent. You should be cultivating that talent in your own particular way" (The Art of Maurice Sendak 22). Sendak despised school from the first time he stepped foot in the first grade classroom door. He felt that school was restricting him from his creative ability. Sendak remembers having to talking himself out of a state of panic every morning just because of school. The only in-school activity he enjoyed was reading which he did on his own.

In high school, Sendak still had trouble in school, except for his art classes. He had an art teacher who set up interesting setups to draw and paint, then let them alone. Sendak flourished under these conditions and soon became known as the school artist. He contributed to the school yearbook and literary magazine. While still in school, Sendak got a job with All-American Comics filling in the details for the Jeff and Mutt comic strip.

Sendak had no intention of going to art school, so after he was out of college he got a job at F.A. Schwarz, a window display shop. By the 1950's Sendak had become friendly with Frances Chrystie, the Schwarz book buyer. When Chrystie found out that Sendak had interest in illustrating children's books, she offered to introduce Sendak Ursula Nordstrom who was the children's book editor at Harper Brothers. Nordstrom looked at Sendak's work and then offered him a job illustrating a collection of works called The Wonderful Farm.

In Sendak's illustrating he enjoyed to use pen and

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