Angels and Wild Things: The Archetypal Poetics of Maurice Sendak
John Cech
Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996
ISBN: 0271009497
Over the course of more than eighty books that he has written and illustrated in a career that has spanned four decades, Sendak has become the most influential and, at times, the most controversial creator of works for children. Each of the books in his trilogy – Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, and Outside Over There – has been precedent-setting, dramatically expanding the boundaries of subject matter and images that have been conventionally accepted in books for younger children. Sendak has been called the Picasso of children’s books, a cultural hero, and one of the most powerful men in the United States because of his ability to affect the fantasy lives of millions of children. Angels and Wild Things examines the unique contribution of Maurice Sendak to the literature of childhood. It is the first comprehensive reading of Sendak’s key works that considers the symbolic child who has appeared and developed in Sendak’s books and remains at the center of his vision.
