A standard, letter-size envelope featuring Where The Wild Things Are original art by its sender, Maurice Sendak, has recently surfaced.
The envelope (3 1/2 x 6 1/2 in; 90 x 165 mm), postmarked New York Jan 27, 1966, is autograph addressed by Sendak to fellow Caldecott Medal award winner, Nonny Hogrogian, with Sendak’s autograph name and return address to the flap. Considering its journey through the United States Postal Service and forty-three year life, it is in miraculous condition.
Original artwork by Sendak associated with and near contemporary to the publishing of his classic Where the Wild Things Are is exceedingly rare.
The envelope, delightfully illustrating a celebratory parade of Wild Things, was sent by Sendak, who won the Caldecott in 1964 for Where the Wild Things Are, to Hogrogian to congratulate her for winning the prestigious award for Always Room For One More.
The Caldecott Award, named for nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott, is presented annually to the illustrator of the most distinguished American picture book for children published in the United States. The winner is announced in January.
Nonny Hogrogian (b. 1932) is the award-winning illustrator of children’s books from New York. She has won the Caldecott Medal a record three times, in 1966 (Always Room For One More), 1972 (One Fine Day), and in 1976 for The Contest.
“Nonny worked for years behind the scenes, consciously cultivating her art. Surely she was lucky in her associations during those early days…Later she would be associated with other famous writers and their books, among whom was Maurice Sendak during the great period that produced Where The Wild Things Are…[Hogrogian is] one of the most talented and interesting figures…in the history of children’s literature” (Introduction by Charles Seluzicky, Catalogue 43 Nonny Hogrogian, Doris Frohndorff 1986).
The Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia has the finest collection of original Maurice Sendak art in the nation.
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Image courtesy of David Brass.