Angels & Wild Things

CECH (John):
Angels & Wild Things. The Archetypal Poetics of Maurice Sendak.
Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995.
Square 4to., xx 284 pp., including 10 full color reproductions (six are double-page) + 110 b/w illustrations of Sendak images (some from sketchbooks and preliminary drawings) or that which inspired them; brown cloth boards gilt-titled on spine, full color pictorial dust-jacket.
First edition, originally conceived as a college on Sendak's art and the philosophy (psychology) behind his images, allegories and symbolism. This was never intended to replace or update Selma Lanes' lavish 1980 biography, but it has still been heralded for going beyond the framework of a mass-marketed trade-book in exploring the universally recognized genius of Sendak: delving deeply into the artist's self-admitted endless fascination and absorption with childhood and child-life. The energy of his picture-books is not simply their artistic beauty, which has dubbed Mr Sendak "the Picasso of Children's Literature", but it also represents a serious enquiry into the emotional and visionary landscape of childhood. Unlike Mrs Lanes' book, this is an analytical study rather than a series of anecdotes, quoting from a variety of published interviews because Prof Cech lacked direct access to the author/artist in the development of this work: but in doing so it also gave him an independence to investigate the psychological quests and journeys that occupy the main activity of so many Sendak books. Most importantly, Cech remains passionate in deconstructing both text and pictures to the scrutiny of an academic researcher and searches for meaning at every step.

This "traces the emergence of Sendak's child archetype and maps the exploration and expansion of it . to historical and cultural influences . from Mickey Mouse to Judy Garland, from Blake to Mozart" - (Cathryn M. Mercer, Horn Book Magazine).
"Just as Sendak's major works reflect a growing psychological awareness, Cech's essays build in complexity" - Washington Post (Book World).
"And by the book's end, one can truly comprehend the genius behind Sendakian words as well as images. The author/artist urges his adult readers to "strip away what Freud called 'blessed amnesia' and reclaim the wonder and innocence of childhood, while encouraging children to . believe in the possibility of worlds better than our own" - (Gregory McNamee, Bloomsburg Review).