Maurice Sendak, one of the most beloved children's authors and illustrators of the 20th century, was born in Brooklyn in 1928 to Jewish parents who had immigrated from Poland. Much of his extended family perished in the Holocaust, and that loss - along with the outsider experience of a Jewish child growing up in America - echoed deeply throughout his life and work.
His most famous book, Where the Wild Things Are (1963), became an instant classic. The story of Max, a boy sent to his room for misbehaving who then journeys to an imaginary land of wild creatures, seems on the surface to be playful fantasy. But beneath that surface lies something deeper: an emotional message to children who feel angry, misunderstood, lonely, or out of place.
Sendak believed that children were capable of understanding difficult emotions, grief, rage, fear, far more than adults often assume. In Max, he offered a kind of mirror: a child who doesn't suppress his "wildness," but explores it, leads it, and ultimately chooses to return home. The ending is quiet, but powerful: "and it was still hot." Love, waiting patiently.
Some see Max as a symbol of the Jewish child in exile, yearning to be seen and accepted for all that he is, including his untamed inner world. Sendak never overtly labeled his books as “Jewish,” but the themes of longing, displacement, and homecoming are unmistakable.
He illustrated and contributed to over 150 books, including In the Night Kitchen and Outside Over There. His unique style, sometimes eerie, sometimes tender, earned him a Caldecott Medal, the Hans Christian Andersen Award, and recognition as a literary giant.
Though Sendak did not draw directly from Icelandic or Nordic sagas, his stories echo something mythic: wild creatures who are not evil, just emotionally complex. That blend of fantasy and emotional truth is what makes his work resonate across cultures - even here in Iceland, where stories and nature both loom large.
Maurice Sendak passed away in 2012, but his legacy lives on, reminding us that imagination is not an escape from reality - it’s a deeper way of entering it.
"You are not alone. Everyone has a Wild Thing they are running from."
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