Then one day my sister abandoned me at the 1939 World's Fair, and that incident is the essence of In the Night Kitchen. I was standing there with hundreds of other people waving back at the little midgets dressed like bakers when I turned around and my sister was gone! The next thing I know I'm screaming and crying and policemen are taking me to a big place with tons of kids who had all been abandoned like me. At least I was old enough to give them a name and an address.
Maurice SendakOnce a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my childrenโs letters โ sometimes very hastily โ but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, โDear Jim: I loved your card.โ Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, โJim loved your card so much he ate it.โ That to me was one of the highest compliments Iโve ever received. He didnโt care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.
Maurice Sendak