In 1992 I was invited to meet Sendak along with other notable illustrators including if I can remember correctly, Angela Barrett, Helen Oxenbury, John Burningham and Shirley Hughes. I had driven down from Manchester with Jill Barton, I missed the cup final to go. It was for a meal hosted by Walker Books in his honour at The Ivy restaurant. He was in London to promote I Saw Esau edited by Iona & Charles Opie, beautifully designed by Amelia Edwards and decorated by his illustrations. It was all very polite and reverential until I got up from the long table and I produced my copy of Where The Wild Things Are for him to sign and then it suddenly became more relaxed and every one else also produced various Sendak books for him to sign. As he left at the end he gave me some sound advice. "Don't let the bastard's fuck you up!"
That is impressive, getting to meet Mr. Sendak. I have a copy of I Saw Esau and also Where the Wild Things Are, both of which I found at a used book sale for twenty and fifty rupees respectively. I'd have never found these at a bookstore.
ReplyDeleteMaybe one day I'll walk tentatively down a long table to get my copy of The Hunchback signed by you. Your sound advice would be pretty similar to Mr. Sendak's I'm sure.
The Hunchback looks forward to be sat at that long table.
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