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FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. Maurice Sendak, author of the award-winning children's book Where the Wild Things Are, died Tuesday at Danbury Hospital. He was 83.
Sendak, who lived in Ridgefield, wrote more than a dozen childrens books, which he also illustrated. Where the Wild Things Are was published in 1963 and was perhaps his most famous, winning the Caldecott Medal the following year.
He was born in 1928 in Brooklyn, N.Y., to Polish immigrants. The New York Times reported that many events in his childhood, such as his illnesses, the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, World War II and the Holocaust, influenced the dark themes that could be seen in some of his work.
His most recent book was Bumble-Ardy, which was published in September and spent five weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. According to the Times, a book of poems inspired by his brother Jack, titled My Brothers Book, is set to be released next February.
The Times reported that he died as a result of complications of a stroke. His longtime companion, Eugene Glynn, died in 2007. He had no other immediate family.
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