The children's writer and illustrator Maurice Sentak, laureate of prizes Andersen and Lindgren, died

The American children's writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak died on Tuesday in a hospital in the American state of Connecticut at the age of 83, RIA Novosti reports with reference to AP.

According to the writer’s friend Lynn Kaponer, who was not up to the last minutes of his life, the creator of the book “Where the Monsters live” last week to the stroke.

Sendak wrote the book "Where the Monsters live" in 1963. Later, the book was reprinted in dozens of countries in many languages. The premiere of the film shot on this book took place in 2009.

Maurice Sendak was born in New York on June 10, 1928 in a family of Jewish emigrants from Poland. Having graduated from elementary school, he was forced to go to work - in particular, the boy made out windows in a toy store. At the age of 12, having watched the Disney cartoon "Fantasia", he decided to become an illustrator.

In 1951, Sendak received his first order - in the illustration of the "Tales of the Kot Murlyki" Marseille Eme. Subsequently, his artistic works - including illustrations for the "Nutcracker" of Hoffmann - were awarded Andersen. Sendak did all his works manually, not recognizing any computer technology, and by the end of his life with bitterness he stated that he felt "one of the last dinosaurs."

By 1957, Sendak began to write his own books. His most famous thing was the fairy tale “Where the Monsters live” (1963), later successfully filmed by Spike Jones, but he himself was most proud of a book called Brundibar (“Bumblebee”), which later became the basis for the children's opera.

In addition, Sendak was the author of costumes for several theatrical and opera productions and producer of the animated series based on his own books.

Throughout his life, Sendak repeatedly received awards for his works. So, in March 2003, Maurice Sentak became the first owner of the literary memory Astrid Lindgren memory.