Maurice Sendak, the cranky, brilliant, forthright, darkly incisive author and illustrator, has died at 83. Haunted by the Holocaust and insistent on honoring the sometime menace of the world of children, Sendak's astounding body of work ranges from the classic Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen to ballet sets and concentration camp operas. A singular, lunatic, true-to-the-core vision. He will be missed.

"This is obviously the work of a man who has dementia...But I'm very happy with it." - Sendak on his final book, Brundibar.