Where the Wild Things Are

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Cover of Where the Wild Things Are

By Maurice Sendak, Hamish Hamilton, 1963

Where the Wild Things Are

Written and Illustrated by Maurice Sendak

New York, Harper & Row, 1963

10.5" x 9.5"

Kerlan Collection, Children's Literature Research Collections

University of Minnesota Libraries

The 20th century's preeminent children's book artist, Maurice Sendak was a lifelong student of Romanticism. William Blake and the Grimms loomed large in his pantheon of creative influences. In Where the Wild Things Are, Max in his wolf suit seems a cunning cross between Blake's lamb and tiger: one part innocence, one part rage. In his fearless exploration of childhood emotion, Sendak also introduced Freud into the mix. In Where the Wild Things Are, the forest of fairy tales becomes a persuasive metaphor for the dreaming unconscious, the place where demons can be faced down and life's balance ultimately restored.


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