Celebrating the Work of Maurice Sendak

Many, many people are remembering Maurice Sendak, today dead at the age of 83 from complications due to a stroke.  I did not know the controversy regarding In the Night Kitchen.  Before we opened the bookstore, I saw it on a sale rack and felt scandalized that a book by the great Maurice Sendak was being sold at a discounted price, like an unwanted, unheralded amateur's effort.  I immediately bought it and have it still.  Larry read it and didn't see anything special about it.  It is a whimsical story and the controversy was about showing a little boy's penis!

The first book Sendak published in 30 years was Bumble-Ardy, a allegory for the European Jewish Holocaust.  Another of his later and very personal works is "Pincus and the Pig."  Radio Q remembered Sendak by interviewing Glenn Dickson, part of The Shirim Klezmer Orchestra, on the "Pincus and the Pig" project.