Maurice Sendak, Author of ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ Dies at 83

Where The Wild Things Are (Book Cover)

His long-time editor, Michael di Capua, told The New York Times the author died in Danbury, Connecticut, after complications from a recent stroke.

He wrote some 17 books and was a prolific illustrator, but was best-known for his 1963 tale of Max, who became the “king of all wild things”.

Sendak also worked for television and the theater and excelled as a narrator, if you judge by his recording of “Pincus and the Pig.” Sendak pulled on people and accents in his own Polish-Jewish immigrant family, to create the characters in this story.

He recorded the story with music, with the Shirim Klezmer Orchestra, a Boston based Klezmer band. Glenn Dickson is the band’s clarinettist and tells The World’s Marco Werman about his experience recording “Pincus and the Pig” with Sendak.