Ode to Maurice Sendak

From my sketchbook in 2008. Left: xerox from Maurice Sendak's Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or, There Must Be More to Life. Right: My attempt to copy his drawing with addition of my own colors.

Maurice Sendak's delicate pen drawings were just so exquisite and moving in his picture book Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or, There Must Be More to Life, I had to held my breath.

In his writing for Jean Grenier's Islands, Albert Camus described a breathtaking joy to find a wonderful book in the store, read couple of pages then to run somewhere to read the entire book alone. A lot of Maurice Sendak's books were like that for me, and especially that Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or, There Must Be More to Life. (What kind of children's book has that kind of title?!) The encounter took place in 2008 winter, at the Visual Art Library where I was working and discharging the very book. From the moment I opened the first page, I was stunned. Not only beautifully composed drawings were so touching, but also the story of Jennie, a little white dog who was comfortably living in the house and had everything she wanted, was taking unpredictable turns every time I turned the page. I couldn't stop turning pages to follow curious and sly Jennie's adventure and her pleasant or depressing encounters. At the same time, I couldn't quite keep turning pages because drawings were just so beautiful and I had to keep looking at them in admiration.

I met Sendak's In the Night Kitchen when I first came to New York and went to Barns & Noble at the Union Square. At that time, (with much more enthusiasm and affection towards children's books than now I am), I often went to book stores and read children's books for hours. I can't quite forget the thrill I felt when I saw the book, In the Night Kitchen. I didn't even know about Sendak at that time. The book was just so different from any other books I'd ever seen and I couldn't put it down. That became the first children's book I purchased in New York. Later, I learned Maurice Sendak was a legend.

Though I did not enjoy his ever so famous Where the Wild Things Are as much as other books of his, I do remember the movie based on the book, which came out in 2009. I saw the movie with a guy I met through my first time (and last time) ever blind date in my life. The movie was quite good, but would have been hard to understand if one had not known the book.

I loved all his books for their beauty and for their characters. When I read an edited interview with Maurice Sendak in last week's New Yorker, I was not surprised. You could just see what he meant in his books. Yet I do hope he would be happier in another world. All my admiration is yours.

" It's hard to be happy. Some people have the gift of pulling themselves up and out and saying there is more to life than just tragedy. And then there are those who can't, and I'm one of them. Do you believe it when people say they're happy?"

- from THE NEW YORKER, MAY 21, 2012, WILD THINGS BY MARIANA COOK, from an interview with Maurice Sendak in 2009.