American children's book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, best known for his award-winning Where the Wild Things Are, has died.
Those close to the 83-year-old Sendak said he died Tuesday in Danbury, Connecticut. He had suffered a stroke just days before.
Born in New York City in 1928 to Jewish immigrants from Poland, Sendak wrote stories that helped redefine children's literature. His books were often dark and intense and showed children overcoming evil forces and facing difficult emotions, such as fear. His artistic skill brought to life richly imaginative worlds filled with animals and magical creatures.
The 1963 book Where the Wild Things Are, which follows a boy named Max on an adventure through his imagination, earned Sendak a prestigious Caldecott Medal and was turned into a hit movie in 2009. Earlier this year, President Barack Obama read the book to children at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.
Sendak also worked on many theater and opera productions and served as the illustrator for the popular children's book series Little Bear. Some of his other notable works include In the Night Kitchen, Outside Over There and Pierre.
In addition to the Caldecott Medal, Sendak received a number of other awards throughout his six-decade career, including a National Medal of the Arts presented to him by then-U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1996 and the international Hans Christian Andersen Award.
Sendak's stories reflect a childhood plagued by illness and reminders of death. He was often sick as a child, and many of his family members in Europe were killed in Nazi death camps during the Holocaust. These influences help explain some of the dark themes in his works, which have often made them controversial.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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