Selections from Maurice Sendak's Personal Collection Sold to Benefit the Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia
To be offered February 12, 2023 in an online-only auction
Artist and author Maurice Sendak (1928-2012) was an avid book collector as well as a creator. In 2016, the Rosenbach Museum & Library received a bequest of a substantial number of rare books and manuscripts from Mr. Sendak’s personal library. A selection from the bequest is now part of the Rosenbach’s permanent collection. Included are first editions and manuscripts by author Herman Melville—the collecting of which prompted a congenial competition between Mr. Sendak and The Rosenbach staff, with the knowledge that the two collections would eventually be united—and illustrated books by artist, printer, and writer William Blake.
Other rare and significant items from the bequest, which were not within the museum’s mission-based collecting scope and were thus never accessioned into the collections, are being offered in this sale. They include important editions of authors and illustrators, among them Henry James, Lewis Carroll, Lothar Meggendorfer, George Cruikshank, and George MacDonald.
After Mr. Sendak’s initial visit to the museum in 1966—during which he was invited to stay overnight in the then-director's quarters, surrounded by books and artwork he so loved—he began to leave his work on deposit at the Rosenbach. The deposit eventually comprised more than 10,000 pieces of original artwork, manuscripts, dummy books, correspondence, printer’s proofs and other working materials, plus first editions, all representing such books as Where the Wild Things Are (1963), In the Night Kitchen (1970), and Outside Over There (1981). The artwork was regularly exhibited to the public, lent to other museums, and made accessible to researchers.
In 2014, the Rosenbach returned the collection to Mr. Sendak’s estate and foundation, the legal owners of the deposit. The Rosenbach still retains a small collection of original book art by Sendak and editions of many of his notable works collected separately from the deposit.
The Rosenback Museum & Library is a community that engages with and celebrates the art of the written word using their collection of rare books, manuscripts, and historical objects. Learn more about their mission, vision, and history by visiting https://rosenbach.org/about/mission-history/
