{"id":1078,"date":"2018-02-21T16:59:19","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T16:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/news\/?p=1078"},"modified":"2018-02-21T17:58:11","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T17:58:11","slug":"uconn-archives-to-house-maurice-sendak-artwork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/news\/uconn-archives-to-house-maurice-sendak-artwork\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Archives to House Maurice Sendak Artwork"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ken Best, UConn Communications
\nRe-posted from UConn Today<\/em>
\nFebruary 21, 2018<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"

Cover of ‘Where the Wild Things Are,’ \u00a91963 by Maurice Sendak, copyright renewed 1991 by Maurice Sendak. Used with permission from HarperCollins Children\u2019s Books.<\/p><\/div>\n

The finished artwork for his published books, and certain manuscripts, sketches, and other related materials created by Maurice Sendak, considered the leading artist of children\u2019s books in the 20th century, will be hosted and maintained at the University of Connecticut under an agreement approved today by UConn\u2019s Board of Trustees.<\/p>\n

The Maurice Sendak Foundation will continue to own the artwork and source materials for books such as\u00a0Where the Wild Things Are,<\/em>\u00a0In the Night Kitchen<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Outside Over There,<\/em>\u00a0which will serve as a resource for research by students, faculty, staff, scholars and the general public through the Department of Archives & Special Collections in the UConn Library. The housing of The Maurice Sendak Collection at UConn is being supported by a generous grant from The Maurice Sendak Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would only have to spend an afternoon with Maurice to know that he was the ultimate mentor and nurturer of talent,\u201d says Lynn Caponera, president of The Maurice Sendak Foundation. \u201cHe profoundly admired UConn\u2019s dedication to the art of the book, both in its collections and in its teachings. We, the friends who he entrusted to carry on his legacy through the Foundation, couldn\u2019t be more pleased with this exciting collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Archives & Special Collections includes the Northeast Children\u2019s Literature Collection, which contains 120 archives of notable authors and illustrators of children\u2019s literature native to or identified with the Northeast and East Coast of the United States. The collection, established in 1989, preserves every aspect of children\u2019s book production \u2013 from the initial correspondence to preliminary drawings, finished art, dummies, mechanicals, proofs, galleys, and manuscripts.<\/p>\n

\n

Imagine now opening up students to the world of one of the most celebrated creators of visual literature for children\u2019s picture books\u00a0\u2026 and walking across campus to take part in what amounts to a private master class with Maurice Sendak.<\/b>\u2014 Cora Lynn Deibler<\/small><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Significant holdings in the Northeast Children\u2019s Literature Collection include the archives of leading authors and illustrators who have won major honors such as the Caldecott Medal, Caldecott Honor, John Newbery Medal, and Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, among others. It also contains \u201cThe Billie M. Levy Collection of Maurice Sendak\u201d of more than 800 monographs written and illustrated by Sendak, along with realia manufactured for children, such as promotional toys, games, animals, and other items that relate to Sendak\u2019s stories and characters.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Renowned author and illustrator Maurice Sendak signs books at the UConn Coop bookstore on April 28, 1981. (Jo Lincoln Photo, courtesy of Archives & Special Collections, UConn Libraries)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cMaurice Sendak created books that will live forever. His work changed the course of children\u2019s literature in the twentieth century,\u201d says Katharine Capshaw, professor of English and president of the Children\u2019s Literature Association. \u201cFrom\u00a0Where the Wild Things Are<\/em>\u00a0to the Nutshell Library [series] to\u00a0We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy,<\/em>Sendak\u2019s books connect profoundly to children\u2019s inner fears and vast resourcefulness. He treated young people with respect, valuing their creativity and sense of ethics, and his work illuminated the joy and mystery of the imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capshaw notes that The Maurice Sendak Collection will be an invaluable resource for UConn undergraduate students in English, Creative Writing, Art and Art History, the Neag School of Education, and Psychology, as well as our graduate students and visiting scholars.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven Sendak\u2019s life as a Connecticut resident and his longstanding connection to the University of Connecticut, his work has found an apt home,\u201d she adds. \u201cThey will enrich Connecticut students and the intellectual and aesthetic life of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sendak lived in Connecticut and supported UConn for many years, speaking to the children\u2019s literature classes of Francelia Butler, professor of English, in the 1970s and 1980s, and supporting the legacy of James Marshall, author of the \u201cGeorge and Martha\u201d books. The James Marshall Fellowship at UConn is awarded biennially to a promising author and\/or illustrator to assist with the creation of new children\u2019s literature. In 1990, Sendak delivered a commencement address at UConn and received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts.<\/p>\n

Sendak\u2019s children\u2019s books have sold more than 30 million copies and have been translated into more than 40 languages. He received the 1964 Caldecott Medal for\u00a0Where the Wild Things Are<\/em>\u00a0and is the creator of such classics as\u00a0Higglety Pigglety Pop!<\/em>\u00a0and the Nutshell Library. He received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Illustration in 1970, Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the American Library Association in 1983, and a National Medal of Arts in recognition of his contribution to the arts in America in 1996. He also received the first Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, an annual international prize for children\u2019s literature established by the Swedish government in 2003.<\/p>\n

After his death in 2012 at the age of 83,\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0said Sendak is \u201cwidely considered the most important children\u2019s book artist of the 20th century, who wrenched the picture book out of the safe, sanitized world of the nursery and plunged it into the dark, terrifying, and hauntingly beautiful recesses of the human psyche \u2026 [His] books were essential ingredients of childhood for the generation born after 1960 or thereabouts, and in turn for their children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Maurice Sendak receives an honorary degree from then-President Harry Hartley during Convocation on Sept. 5, 1990. (Archives & Special Collections, UConn Libraries)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe availability of Maurice Sendak\u2019s work to students, faculty, and the community, as part of the Northeast Children\u2019s Literature Collection, is an incredible gift and opportunity,\u201d says Cora Lynn Deibler, head of the Department of Art and Art History and a professor of illustration.<\/p>\n

She says that Archives & Special Collections allows unprecedented access to anything and everything in their holdings, and that faculty members take advantage specifically in Illustration and Animation because it provides \u201can important window into the working worlds of some of the most elite, accomplished visual storytellers of our time.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine now opening up students to the world of one of the most celebrated creators of visual literature for children\u2019s picture books \u2026 and walking across campus to take part in what amounts to a private master class with Maurice Sendak. As you pore through the work, you will be receiving a one-on-one tutorial in excellence in the form \u2013 from creativity and concept, through design and execution. Sendak\u2019s work housed here is such an incredible gift for us all. We could not be more fortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ken Best, UConn Communications Re-posted from UConn Today February 21, 2018 The finished artwork for his published books, and certain manuscripts, sketches, and other related materials created by Maurice Sendak, considered the leading artist of children\u2019s books in the 20th … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1089,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions\/1089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}