This volume traces Maurice Sendak's life and work from 1980 to the present, detailing sketches and final art for theatre productions, children's books, adult book jackets, posters, and CD covers.



Maurice Sendak is one of the most admired artists in children's literature. His uniquely expressive illustrations, which bring to life a world of fantasy and imagination, have won him both the Hans Christian Andersen Medal and the Caldecott Medal. Picking up where Selma Lanes's earlier, landmark monograph, The Art of Maurice Sendak, leaves off, this new book traces Sendak's life and work from 1980 to the present, representing two decades filled with projects outside the children's book arena. This strikingly designed volume is overflowing with hundreds of wonderful Sendak illustrations—sketches and final art for children's books, adult book jackets, posters, CD covers, and opera and theater productions from The Nutcracker ballet and The Magic Flute to Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges. The text is by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Tony Kushner, a longtime friend of the artist who is collaborating with him on an American version of the children's opera Brundibar. Kushner's intimate view of Maurice Sendak's past two decades will only add to the appreciation of this multitalented artist, whose creative endeavors are among the most inventive and treasured imaginative works of our time.