"I refuse to cater to the bullshit of innocence." "I refuse to lie to children," he told the Guardian last year, with characteristic irascibility, in one of his last interviews. Sendak attributed his success to a refusal to patronise younger readers or sugar-coat their experiences, considering them "a better audience and tougher critics". It has sold more than 17m copies worldwide and in 2009 was adapted into a Hollywood movie.
The book attracted controversy on publication thanks to its unsettling theme, but proved a phenomenal success. The book tells the story of a boy called Max who is sent to bed without supper and embarks on a dreamlike journey to a country inhabited by a population of fanged "wild things" that were both lovable and disturbing. It was with Where the Wild Things Are in 1963, however, that Sendak would achieve international acclaim. His early work, including images for Ruth Krauss's A Hole is to Dig, published in 1952 – a collection of children's sometimes quirky definitions of everyday words – and Else Holmelund Minarik's Little Bear series from 1957, conjured comfortably wholesome images of childhood. In a six-decade career, Sendak provided the illustrations for more than 100 children's books, writing and illustrating 20 more and winning a host of prizes including, in 1970, the Hans Christian Andersen award for children's book illustration, the most prestigious award in the field.
"Every once in a while, someone comes along who changes our world for the better. His talent is legendary his mind and breadth of knowledge equally so. "He was a glorious author and illustrator, an amazingly gifted designer, a blisteringly funny raconteur, a fierce and opinionated wit, and a loyal friend to those who knew him. "We are terribly saddened at the passing of Maurice Sendak," said Susan Katz, president and publisher of HarperCollins Children's Books, which published his books. The man considered by many to be the most important children's author of the 20th century suffered a stroke on Friday, according to his longtime friend and carer, Lynn Caponera, and died as a result of complications. On Tuesday Sendak died at his home in Connecticut, aged 83.
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