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For Immediate Release
January 21, 2002

Maurice Sendak wins Arbuthnot Lecture

World-renowned illustrator and author Maurice Sendak has been selected as the May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecturer for 2003.

Each year, an individual of distinction in the field of children's literature is chosen to write and deliver a lecture that will make a significant contribution to the world of children's literature. The award is administered by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The announcement was made January 21 during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in New Orleans.

Sendak, who was born in 1928 and grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., now lives in rural Connecticut. A prolific illustrator for many notable authors, such as Ruth Krauss, Randall Jarrell and Charlotte Zolotow, he also is the distinguished writer of such groundbreaking classics as "Where the Wild Things Are" (Caldecott Medal, 1964), "In the Night Kitchen" (1970), and "Outside Over There" (1981). In the last 50 years, he has illustrated nearly 100 books.

"Sendak's subtle understanding of children's inner lives and the compassion conveyed by his precisely observed, richly detailed art are unique in the world of illustration," Arbuthnot Committee Chair Joanna Rudge Long said. "His interpretations of folk tales and nursery rhymes are particularly notable for the wit and creativity with which he has used illustration to extend the meaning of traditional texts."

Sendak is the only American to have won the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration, an international honor he received in 1970. In addition to the 1964 Caldecott Medal, Sendak was also the recipient of ALSC's Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for lifetime contribution in writing for young adults in 1983 and the National Medal of Arts in 1996.

Members of the Arbuthnot Committee include: Joanna Rudge Long, Chair, Pomfret, Vt.; Karen Breen, Kirkus Reviews, New York City; Michael Cart, Chico, Calif.; Barbara Immroth, University of Texas at Austin; and Janice D. Smuda, Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Library.

More information on the Arbuthnot lecture can be found online. Applications to host the 2003 lecture are available from ALSC, alsc@ala.org.