What a sad story!
Dona
On 9/10/08 8:13 PM, "mlgav" <mlgav@yahoo.com> wrote:
> September 10, 2008
> NYTIMES
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/10/arts/design/10sendak.html?th&emc=th
>
>
>
> Concerns Beyond Just Where the Wild Things Are
>
>
> By PATRICIA COHEN
>
>
>
>
>
> Maurice Sendakıs 80th year
> which ended with his birthday earlier this summer and is being
> celebrated on Monday night with a benefit at the 92nd Street Y
> was a tough one. He has been gripped by grief since the death of his
> longtime partner; a recent triple-bypass has temporarily left him too
> weak to work or take long walks with his dog; and he is plagued by Norman
> Rockwell.
> Or, to be more accurate, he is plagued by the question that has
> repeatedly been asked about Norman Rockwell: was he a great artist or a
> mere illustrator?
> ³Mere illustrator,² he said, repeating the phrase with contempt.
> Itıs not that Mr. Sendak, who has illustrated more than 100 books,
> including many he wrote, is angry that people question Rockwellıs
> talent; rather, he fears he has not risen above the ³mere illustrator²
> label himself.
> Never mind that Mr. Sendakıs originality and emotional honesty have
> changed the shape of childrenıs literature; that his work is featured
> in museums; that he has designed costumes and sets for operas, ballets
> and theater; that he has won a chest full of awards and prizes
> including a National Medal of the Arts. As the playwright Tony Kushner,
> one of his collaborators, said, ³Heıs one of the most important, if not
> the most important, writers and artists ever to work in childrenıs
> literature. In fact, heıs a significant writer and artist in
> literature. Period.²
> Mr. Sendak protested, ³But Tony is my friend.²
> Mr. Sendak, a square-shaped gnome, was sitting in the dining room of
> his Connecticut retreat. His shoulders are a bit stooped, but his
> fingers are long and delicate. When he hears that the 92nd Street Y
> event is sold out, his eyebrows rise in surprise.
> ³They must be coming to see the other people,² he said, referring to guests
> like Mr. Kushner, Meryl Streep, James Gandolfini, Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers and
> Catherine Keener.
> Even his heart attack doesnıt seem up to snuff. People arenıt
> impressed with a triple bypass, he lamented; now it has to be a
> quadruple: ³You feel like such a failure.²
> That Mr. Sendak fears that his work is inadequate, that he is racked
> with insecurity and anxiety, is no surprise. For more than 50 years
> that has been the hallmark of his art. The extermination of most of his
> relatives and millions of other Jews by the Nazis; the intrusive,
> unemployed immigrants who survived and crowded his parentsı small
> apartment; his sickly childhood; his motherıs dark moods; his own
> ever-present depression all lurk below the surface of his work,
> frequently breaking through in meticulously drawn, fantastical ways.
> He is not, as childrenıs book writers are often supposed, an
> everymanıs grandpapa. His hatreds are fierce and grand, as if produced
> by Cecil B. DeMille.
> He hates his uncle (who made a cruel comment about him when he was a
> boy); he hates anything to do with God or religion, and Judaism in
> particular (³We were the chosen people,ı chosen to be killed?²); he
> hates Salman Rushdie
> (for writing an excoriating review of one of his books); he hates
> syrupy animation, which is why he is thrilled with Mr. Jonzeıs coming
> film of his book ³Where the Wild Things Are,² despite rumors of studio
> discontent.
> ³I hate people,² he said at one point, extolling the superior
> company of dogs, like his sweet-tempered German shepherd, Herman (after
> Melville).
> He is, at heart, a curmudgeon, but a delightful one, with a vast
> range of knowledge, a wicked sense of humor and a talent for
> storytelling and mimicry.
> When Mr. Sendak received the 1996 National Medal of Arts, President Bill
> Clinton told him about one of his own childhood fantasies that involved
> wearing a long coat with brass buttons when he grew up.
> ³But Mr. President, youıre only going to be president for a year more,² Mr.
> Sendak said, ³you still have time to be a doorman.²
> Mr. Sendak insisted he was trying to be ingratiating, not funny.
> Against all probability, some of the nightmares that have
> relentlessly pursued him since childhood like the 1932 Lindbergh baby
> kidnapping have been laid to rest. A couple of weeks ago a dealer
> found one of the tiny reproductions of the kidnapperıs ladder that were
> sold as souvenirs at the New Jersey trial.
> ³I was floored,² Mr. Sendak said. He traded one of his drawings for it. ³That
> ends my obsession with the case,² he said.
> His fascination with the kidnapping, like many of the other details
> of his life, has been repeated endlessly over the years in the hundreds
> of interviews he has given. Was there anything he had never been asked?
> He paused for a few moments and answered, ³Well, that Iım gay.²
> ³I just didnıt think it was anybodyıs business,² Mr. Sendak added.
> He lived with Eugene Glynn, a psychoanalyst, for 50 years before Dr.
> Glynnıs death in May 2007. He never told his parents: ³All I wanted was
> to be straight so my parents could be happy. They never, never, never
> knew.²
> Children protect their parents, Mr. Sendak said. It was like the
> time he had a heart attack at 39. His mother was dying from cancer in
> the hospital, and he decided to keep the news to himself, something he
> now regrets.
> A gay artist in New York is not exactly uncommon, but Mr. Sendak
> said that the idea of a gay man writing children books would have hurt
> his career when he was in his 20s and 30s.
> His latest book is one he started about four years ago, right after
> Dr. Glynn became sick with lung cancer. The illness and setting up of
> round-the-clock care in their home were just ³so unbelievable,² he
> explained. Mr. Sendak is mostly finished with it, but he admitted that
> for the first time, ³I feel extremely vulnerable.²
> He is afraid not of death, which is as familiar to him as a
> childıs teddy bear but of not being able to finish his work: ³I feel
> like I donıt have a lot of time left.²
> After Dr. Glynnıs death, Mr. Sendak said he was ³still trying to figure out
> what Iım doing here.²
> ³I wanted to take his place,² he said. ³His death became a
> demarcation.² He added that he lost touch with many of his friends,
> unable to return phone calls and reply to e-mail messages.
> Mr. Sendak is pleased with the coming birthday celebration, just as
> he is about his awards and honors, but in the end, he maintained, they
> donıt add up to much. They ³never penetrated,² he said. ³They were like
> rubber bullets.²
> Itıs not that he isnıt grateful. ³They made me happy, but at a
> certain point in your life, you see through them,² he said. ³You donıt
> mock them, you donıt hate them, you feel sorry for them² tiny, inert
> emblems that just arenıt up to the task of answering pressing questions
> about meaning, soul-touching greatness and durability.
> So he spends his days pondering his heroes: Mozart, Keats, Blake,
> Melville and Dickinson. He admires and yearns for their ³ability to be
> private, the ability to be alone, the ability to follow some spiritual
> course not written down by anybody.²
> Mr. Sendak is quick to insist that a vast distance stands between
> his own accomplishments and theirs. ³Iım not one of those people,² he
> said. ³I canıt pretend to be.²
> Still, he has the feeling that ³I will do something yet that is
> purely for me but will create for someone in the future that passion
> that Blake and Keats did in me.²
> What he has failed to consider, though, is that he may already have.
>
>
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>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> mary gavlik
> library media specialist
> chuckey-doak middle school
> afton, tn
> 42787-2038
>
> ~~~~~~
> At the moment that we persuade a child, any child, to cross that
> threshold, that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives
> forever, for the better.
>
> ~~Barack Obama
>
>
>
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>
>
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Dona J. Hartwich
Senior Librarian and ICT Coordinator
Horsham College
Horsham, VIC
Australia
03 53827177
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