Q&A: Leonard Marcus shares thoughts on children's literature ahead of Columbus visit
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Leonard Marcus has been studying and writing about children's literature for decades. One of the authors he admires most is Maurice Sendak, the author of “Where the Wild Things Are” and many other books.
Marcus, who has written books about “Goodnight Moon” author Margaret Wise Brown, notable children's book editor Ursula Nordstrom, and 19th century book illustrator Randolph Caldecott, among others, also served as editor for “Maurice Sendak: A Celebration of the Artist and His Work,” a collection of Sendak's work and essays about him.
Marcus will be speaking about Sendak and the interviews he conducted with him over the years at a Sesquicentennial Authors Series event at the Columbus Metropolitan Library's main branch on Sunday. This event is presented in partnership with the Columbus Museum of Art whose exhibit “Wild Things Are Happening: The Art of Maurice Sendak” continues through March 5. Admission is free, but registration is required at columbuslibrary.org.
Marcus, 72, spoke from his office in Brooklyn.
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Q: You met Sendak several times over the years. What do you think would surprise people about him, people who know him mainly from books like “Where the Wild Things Are”?
Marcus: He was a very serious man, and a very funny man. I think he thought that people trivialized children's books as an art form, and he was as committed an artist as you could ever meet. And he was completely self-taught. He was also a very serious collector of art and literature. He had Herman Melville's writing desk in his office. And he was constantly working. He did theater work, he did advertising work, he did drawings for friends. He was a very hard-working artist.
Q: In “Show Me a Story,” you talk about him as a pivotal figure in children's literature.
Marcus: I think he really is the pivotal figure who shifted the vision of childhood, for picture books, and to some extent, even for parents. Up until his time, the underlying assumption for picture book makers was that books were there to entertain, maybe to teach something, but also to protect children from the harsher aspects of life and of their emotional lives. Sendak, who was very aware of psychoanalysis and psychology in general, felt that that really wasn't true. He thought that children were much more emotional than a lot of adults wanted to acknowledge, and also much more aware of the outside world. He thought that it was important for children's books to reflect the understanding of what children's experience really was, and to offer encouragement by saying that they were not alone in those experiences.
Q: Is it fair to ask if you have a favorite book by him?
Marcus: I think, from an aesthetic point of view, “Where the Wild Things Are” deserves to be called a perfect book. The way it's structured, the way the pictures get bigger and bigger and then smaller and smaller, the way that reflects the shift in Max's awareness from his conscious self to his unconscious dream self. Eventually, the pictures push words off the page. That's such a beautiful visual expression of the shift in his consciousness. He's going away from the part of himself that is self-controlled and influenced by his parents and teachers into the deepest part of himself in the center of this book. And then he emerges from that and the size of the pictures and the return of words perfectly mirrors that transition. I think the pictures in the first part of the book, where you see his room transformed into a jungle are done so artfully. It's one of the most magical moments in all of children's literature.
Q: For you, what makes picture books so fascinating?
Marcus: Picture books are stories told in two languages, words and pictures, and when they're done well, they set something into motion that is completed in the reader's mind. The reader has to put the two parts together and create the final version of the story. Everybody does it in their own way. Picture books appear to be so simple, but they aren't. It's not simplicity, it's distillation. The only similar art form that comes to mind is lyric poetry.
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Q: Were picture books part of your life when you were growing up?
Marcus: Only in a limited way. I was the youngest of three children, and I think my mother was tired of reading to us by the time I came along. I was given a lot of hand-me-down books, mostly Golden Books, which I ended up writing a whole history of. Those books were a mixed bag. But even the ones that I wouldn't say today were especially good books were meaningful. Children read books and look at books for all sorts of reasons. Often they're looking for an answer to a question in their own lives. In my case, there was a book called “What Will I Be?” When we had family gatherings, older relatives would always ask, “What are you going to be when you grow up?” And I never knew what to say. So this book was the answer to my prayers! For a time, I debated in myself whether to become a gas station attendant or a cowboy. Those were the two most appealing options in that book. I really needed a book like that, and there it was.
Q: Anything else you'd like to add about Sendak?
Marcus: One thing I would add is that it wasn't just what he did that made him so important, it was that he spoke about what he did. He became a spokesperson for the entire art form. He was really a fierce defender of the value and the artistic worth of what he was doing.
Q: Do you think the value of children's books is better recognized today?
Marcus: Absolutely. There are now three museums in the United States devoted to children's book art. When Sendak started, that was not imaginable. And more general museums, like the one in Columbus, take it for granted that having an exhibition of children's book art would be a good thing to do. That was not the case 30 years ago, either. There's been a big change in the perception of the field. It's true in art schools, it's true in the gallery world, it's true in universities, where children's books are taught as literature now. There's been a real cultural transformation, and he had a lot to do with it.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Leonard Marcus to visit Columbus for Columbus Library's author series
