The Genius Of Maurice Sendak

Critics panned it. Psychologists said it was “too dark.” So why are we wild about “Where the Wild Things Are”?

This is the first in a series of posts about classic books and stories for adults or children that will appear here along with those on other literary topics.

Where the Wild Things Are is so popular today that few people may realize how revolutionary it was when it first appeared in 1963. In a sense it was the Les Demoiselles d’Avignon of picture books, and not just because it, too, is about the night. Maurice Sendak broke the rules of composition and content as Picasso had done 1907, and his defiance of them still reverberates.

Great picture books existed before Sendak wrote and illustrated the story of a boy named Max, who finds an outlet in fantasy for the anger he feels after his mother puts him to bed without supper. His work shares traits with that of artists such as Beatrix Potter and Randolph Caldecott — meticulous craftsmanship, a seamless interplay of works and pictures, and a refusal to patronize children.

But with its 338 words and pen-and-ink and watercolor art, Where the Wild Things Are put its own stamp on picture books. Sendak tells its story in both words and pictures until Max travels to an imaginary realm and orders a…