Wild Visionary: Maurice Sendak in Queer Jewish Context

Golan Y. Moskowitz

Published by Stanford University Press 2020

Wild Visionary

Maurice Sendak in Queer Jewish Context

Golan Y. Moskowitz

In the series Stanford Studies in Jewish History and C

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503614093

Overview
Contents

About this book

Wild Visionary reconsiders Maurice Sendak's life and work in the context of his experience as a Jewish gay man. Maurice (Moishe) Bernard Sendak (1928–2012) was a fierce, romantic, and shockingly funny truth seeker who intervened in modern literature and culture. Raising the stakes of children's books, Sendak painted childhood with the dark realism and wild imagination of his own sensitive "inner child," drawing on the queer and Yiddish sensibilities that shaped his singular voice.

Interweaving literary biography and cultural history, Golan Y. Moskowitz follows Sendak from his parents' Brooklyn home to spaces of creative growth and artistic vision—from neighborhood movie palaces to Hell's Kitchen, Greenwich Village, Fire Island, and the Connecticut country home he shared with Eugene Glynn, his partner of more than fifty years. Further, he analyzes Sendak's investment in the figure of the endangered child in symbolic relation to collective touchstones that impacted the artist's perspective—the Great Depression, the Holocaust, and the AIDS crisis. Through a deep exploration of Sendak's picture books, interviews, and previously unstudied personal correspondence, Wild Visionary offers a sensitive portrait of the most beloved and enchanting picture-book artist of our time.

Author / Editor information

Golan Y. Moskowitz is Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Catherine and Henry J. Gaisman Faculty Fellow at Tulane University.

Reviews

Kenneth Kidd:
"Easily the best study of Sendak to appear; deeply researched and utterly engaging. Moskowitz brings rich new context to Sendak's life, showing how the artist's historically sidelined queer and Jewish identity inspired his work. Even the notoriously cranky Sendak would have liked it."

Jack Zipes:
"Golan Y. Moskowitz's thorough study of Maurice Sendak's life and work unveils the struggles that led him to 'queer' his children's books. Moskowitz captures the essential forces behind his artwork, showing how Sendak was just as politically radical as he was emotionally provocative."

Naomi Seidman:
"This revelatory exploration of Maurice Sendak's life opens up vistas not only on creativity, queerness, and the Jewish-American immigrant experience but also, and most powerfully, on childhood. Moskowitz is a deft guide to the wild places of Sendak's imagination, where generations of children recognized something startling and true about themselves."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction. From Limbo to Childhood Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 Where the Wild Things Acculturate. Roots and Wings in Interwar Brooklyn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
2 Love in a Dangerous Landscape. Queer Kinship and Survival Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
3 Surviving the American Dream. Early Childhood as Queer Lens at Midcentury Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	92
4 “Milk in the Batter” and Controversy in the Making. “Camp,” Stigma, and Public Spotlight in the Era of Social Liberation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
5 Inside Out. Processing the AIDS Crisis and Holocaust Memory Through the Romantic Child Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
Conclusion. A Garden on the Edge of the World Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Appendix: Timeline of Selected Life Events, Works, and Influences Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	283

Language: English
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 312
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 39
Keywords: Sendak; childhood; Jewish studies; queer; affect; kinship; postmemory children’s literature

eBook

Published: December 8, 2020
ISBN: 9781503614093