Friday night a small group of moms, artists, writers and teachers eschewed watching the first half of the final World Series game to gather at the St. Louis County Library. They were dedicated fans of kidlit author and illustrator Maurice Sendak of Where the Wild Things Are fame, there to hear Patrick Rodgers of the Rosenbach Museum & Library of Philadelphia discuss the works of Sendak. In a Nutshell: The Worlds of Maurice Sendak, an exhibit of the author's books and illustrations accompanied by behind-the-scenes explanations, will be at the County Library Headquarters until December 14. For related Sendak events more in tune with younger kids, see the St. Louis County Library website.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Poland, Sendak knew at a young age that his father’s side of the family had perished in the Holocaust. His world was colored by the poor immigrant life around him and his father’s stark and often dark versions of legends and folk tales and stories of life in the old country. His father’s stories in turn (captured in In Grandpa's House and illustrated in pencil by Sendak) colored Sendak’s own stories which merge old and new world with dark emotions and sometimes scary subject matter.
Sendak’s truly important works do not include the popular Where the Wild Things Are, rather his first vibrantly illustrated book, Brundibar, which is a version of a children’s opera produced by Hans Krasa, imprisoned in the Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. The opera was performed by camp children, most of whom were then shipped to Auschwitz to die. Hitler did not see himself as Brundibar the bully and allowed the Red Cross to enter camp to film the opera to show his benevolence towards the Jews and the "good" conditions of the camp, one which did allow the Jews some degree of “freedom.” Krasa eventually was sent to die at Auschwitz, too. Dear Mili is one of Sendak's most beautifully illustrated books, a Holocaust remembrance transformed from a Grimm’s fairy tale. We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy shows Sendak’s anger at childhood poverty and homelessness and abuse, with Holocaust legacy included. While these books seem very dark, a young mother commented that her children liked these stories. She wondered how much she should explain about the sadness behind them.
In the Night Kitchen was interesting as homage to New York and pop culture in the 1930s as well as to Sendak’s mother whose kitchen items feature prominently in the book. It is a “food fantasy” which is on the banned book list because of the naked boy Mickey. A retired teacher in the audience said it was pulled from many a shelf in the early days of release, but some librarians colored clothes on Mickey so he would be presentable.
The In a Nutshell exhibit brings a thorough appreciation of Sendak’s work and introduces a number of his books that are not as well-known, but should be. Patrick Rodgers gave even more depth to Sendak and his works than the exhibit, and left audience members wishing to see the literary treasures in the Rosenbach Museum. Special thanks to the Rosenbach, the American Library Association and Nextbook, an organization dedicated to supporting Jewish literature and culture. Thanks also to a certain St. Louisan named Don for helping arrange a showing of the exhibit in our city.
For more Jewish literature and culture, the annual Jewish Book Festival of St. Louis runs from November 6-16 at the Jewish Community Center in Creve Coeur.
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