One of the most unexpected and delightful occurrences of 2012 was Stephen Colbert's interview with author and illustrator Maurice Sendak. I'd never seen Sendak before or known anything about him (other than how much I loved his work), when out of left field Colbert delivered this fascinating and hilarious two-part interview.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 1 | ||||
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Colbert starts to edge up on that line where he's a little too "Colbert" in Part 2, but it's still a lot of fun and Sendak shines through.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 2 | ||||
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Sadly, this was just a few months before Sendak passed away, May 8, 2012. The interview made the loss more palpable, I feel, which maybe it should be.
A New York Times tribute by Christoph Niemann on his passing, culled from a Terry Gross interview on NPR's Fresh Air.
And here's the Terry Gross interview. Hm, it doesn't seem to want to embed, so here's the Fresh Air interview on NPR.
Gladly, he kept working right up until the end, and leaves a trove of books yet to discover. While I grew up loving Where The Wild Things Are like crazy, in recent years, it was his first pop-up book, Mommy? (2006) that really blew me away.
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| They're doing incredible things in pop-up craft nowadays |
It's silly and short, but I love the tribute to classic Universal Monsters and the way the pop-up is animated, rather than just "boing! I'm a picture and now I'm poking out!" Opening that flap on the mummy page is a show-stealer.
Did you know that there was almost an edition of The Hobbit illustrated by Sendak? There was, until someone screwed up the labels and Tolkien got all grumbly that Sendak didn't know the difference between a hobbit and a wood elf.
I don't have a conclusion here. Maurice Sendak was awesome and now he's gone. It's happy and sad and happy again, because of who he was and all he left behind.
We should be so lucky.
6/11/2013
In recognition of Maurice's 85th birthday yesterday, I'm adding a couple more incredible interviews that came to my attention. In fact, any time I find a new one, I'll throw it in. He had some pretty brilliant things to say while he was with us.
This is another nice animated tribute based on interview audio, from Blank on Blank & PBS Digital Studios.
This one is particularly great. Bill Moyers AND Maurice Sendak? Oh, BABY!
(It's in 2 parts with Madeline Albright in the middle. Go ahead and skip her, but make sure you get both parts of him.)
EDIT: Another! From the TATE & Guardian UK.
EDIT: For Maurice's birthday this year, I'm adding this fantastic interview he did with Dave Eggers for Vanity Fair in 2011.
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