Where the wild writer is

Maguire details Sendak's life, work

Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation by Gregory Maguire; William Morrow; 208 pages; $27.50.

Gregory Maguire, a bestselling author and critic of children’s literature, gives us an original treatment of the remarkable body of work of the legendary artist and writer Maurice Sendak. Maguire invites the reader to choose to read his book right through as a salute to the genius and imagination of a master of literary invention or just to turn the pages as slowly as one likes, moving back and forth and letting the images speak for themselves.

Sendak turned 80 as Maguire prepared this work for publication. It seemed to the author to be a fitting moment for looking back over Sendak’s 60-some years in literature. He does not do that chronologically — Sendak is still working. Instead, Maguire tries part of the process by which Sendak works: “The artist as scavenger is an ancient notion, but no other children’s book artist has had the nerve to borrow with the abandon and playfulness of Sendak.” Maguire does illustrate a few of Sendak’s “visual quotations.” Side by side with William Blake’s illustration “Glad Day” is Sendak’s Superman-like figure and other depictions inspired by similar Blake works. There is Sendak’s interpretations of the works of many artists he admires, and Maguire discusses them as he shows how Sendak adapts the creators’ styles.. Leafing back and forth through the pages gives a perspective on the vast world of art and literature through history,, but most of the book is taken up with Sendak’s view of his own work, as Maguire shows the wide range of his subject’s styles and effects as writer, artist and playwright.

Aside from Sendak’s best known icon, a Wild Thing, his art often includes his heroes, who sometimes are hidden in a maze of obscure references or glancingly are sighted. Among them are Mozart; Ursula Nordstrom, his beloved editor; and Herman Melville, clutching a pen and wearing a top hat with a sunflower. Among other illustrations is a charming depiction of folklorists, historians and publishers shown as birds perching on a branch with Sendak perching there, too. There also is a 1993 depiction of Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton surrounded by easily recognizable denizens of Sendak books.

To sum up, and tie together this sprawling, erudite and satisfying book, Maguire posed himself a nightmare question: Suppose all of Sendak’s artwork were hanging in a museum that caught fire, and he had the chance to save only 10 pieces for posterity. What 10 would he save? In no particular order he describes them.

First, he lists the final page of the three-page wild rumpus in “Where the Wild Things Are.” The leaves are clustered like those in a William Morris wallpaper. The quintessential Wild Thing is leading the procession. Max, with a baton, sets the beat for the march, and each beast leads with its right foot and leans on its left.

Second: “In the Night Kitchen,” in which the three Oliver Hardy bakers perform some of the same functions as Wild Things. The bakers’ placement and gestures set up a rhythm for the eye to work up toward the leap above the milk bottle.

Third on the list, he would save “The House of Sixty Fathers,” recalling similar images by Degas and Cassatt. Here, Maguire writes, Sendak’s economy of line is bold because he is so confident of the image he will draw of a mother bathing a child.

Coming next would be “The Wheel on the School,” an ink wash not unlike a van Gogh drawing, followed by a study from “The Golden Key” because of its paler color of ink and the subject struggling through fog; the boy with cats from “The Juniper Tree”; the beleaguered street urchins from “We Are All in the Dumps With Jack and Guy”; “Fly by Night,” the complicated landscape drawing that includes the Sendak’s mother; and the moon, a.k.a. Mother Goose, who makes sense of the ripest nonsense of our times. Finally, No. 10 is a treasured drawing done spontaneously by Sendak as a gift to Maguire of how Max, who tamed the Wild Things, would look in his wolf costume, at age 76.