Where the Wild Things Are author Maurice Sendak dies at 83

Beloved children's author and illustrator Maurice Sendak has passed away at age eighty-three due to complications from a recent stroke, according to his editor.

Sendak was best known as the author and illustrator of a number of classic children's books, most notably Where the Wild Things Are, though In the Night Kitchen has always been my personal favorite. Readers across several generations embraced his unusually dark plot lines and illustrations, though many balked at the misbehaving (and occasionally nude) children in his stories, landing him on numerous banned book lists.

Sendak also turned his immense talent toward set design, as well as illustrations for authors including Hans Christian Andersen, Leo Tolstoy, and Herman Melville. Most recently, he published his first book in thirty years — a New York Times best-seller entitled Bumble-Ardy — and is still slated to release a posthumous book next February as a tribute to his late brother, simply called My Brother's Book. May they both rest in peace.