Pen to Publisher: The Life of Three Sendak Picture Books
The Rosenbach Museum Library explores the creative process of children’s author and illustrator Maurice Sendak in Pen to Publisher: The Life of Three Sendak Picture Books, on view through July 15. This two-gallery exhibition explores the life cycle of three Sendak books from inception to publication: The Sign on Rosie’s Door (1960), Outside Over There (1981) and Brundibar (2003). Covering more than 40 years, each of these books was inspired and produced in radically different ways, collectively revealing how Sendak pursued and preserved a core idea or character through his own artistic refinements and changing publishing techniques and technologies.
Every book has a life of its own: the flash of insight that inspired its creator; the negotiations among authors, publishers and printers to produce it; and the readers who cherish and critique it. Curated from the Rosenbach’s vast collection of works by the acclaimed author and illustrator, Pen to Publisher displays original Sendak artwork alongside production materials like color separations, layouts, press proofs and publicity materials to answer the simple question: How does an idea become a book?
The exhibition delves into the working relationships between Sendak and his revolving crew of authors, publishers, printers, calligraphers and designers, as they compromised, cooperated and sometimes conceded in order to produce a beautiful — and marketable — finished product.
In the Sendak Gallery on the Rosenbach’s first floor, viewers can investigate Sendak’s earliest creative impulses with each book through hastily scribbled notes and manuscripts to dummy books and sketches. In the second floor’s Gallery 1, the artist’s final work — and materials that detail how it was reproduced, corrected, printed, bound and publicized — will be on display. The Rosenbach invites visitors to follow each of the three books, from Sendak’s first expressions of a story, character or idea to the final signoff at the press.
About the books
The Sign on Rosie’s Door (1960) features the everyday adventures of Rosie, a character Sendak based on a real girl who lived in his Brooklyn neighborhood in the late 1940s. Sendak’s process for creating The Sign on Rosie’s Door involved more dummy books, or sets of pages used to approximate the size and appearance of a finished book, than any other project (four of these hand-made creations will be on display). In addition, Sendak’s color separations — in which he isolated images into single-color layers — are a fascinating example of full-color book production methods that seem antiquated by today’s standards. What stands out through every sketch, dummy book or separation is the brash, dramatic personality of Rosie herself.
Photo: Sendak at the Rosenbach in 1985 by Frank Armstrong
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