Gift recognizes 10th anniversary of Roth Center for Jewish Life
The Dartmouth College Library
has acquired a considerable collection of books and artwork by Maurice Sendak,
author of over 20 children's books and illustrator of over 80 more. Sendak's
most famous book, Where the Wild Things Are, received the Caldecott
Medal in 1964. Morton Wise, an avid book collector and a longtime friend of the
College, assembled The Morton E. Wise Collection of Maurice Sendak over a
period of nine years. The library has acquired the collection through a
combination of gift and purchase.
This early edition of Where the Wild Things Are, first published in
1963, is one of the pieces in Dartmouth's newly acquired Morton E. Wise
Collection of Maurice Sendak.
The copy of Where the Wild Things Are recently acquired by Rauner
Library includes this inscription by author Maurice Sendak to Alicia, daughter
of Sendak's friend Milton Reissman.
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Provost Barry Scherr helped with the acquisition. "The collection is
magnificent," he says. "It's one of the few private compilations of Sendak
materials in the world that is this extensive, and it builds on Dartmouth's
strengths in the area of children's literature. We're grateful to Mort for his
generosity."
The collection consists of approximately 100 books, many of which are
inscribed by Sendak and include original drawings. A first edition of A
Hole is to Dig includes a detailed sketch of a piano player with a
handwritten note from Sendak to his friend, pianist Peter Duchin, "A piano is
to play on—preeminent one!" Original artwork in the collection includes
Sendak's haunting image of a child under a blanket that was later used in the
book Outside Over There. There are also first editions of In the
Night Kitchen, Little Bear, Lullabies and Night Songs, and The
Nutshell Library (which includes Chicken Soup with Rice.)
"This is a wonderful addition to the College," says Jay Satterfield,
director of Rauner Special
Collections Library. "Sendak helped reshape modern children's literature,
and to have original artwork from him is a real treasure." Satterfield says
that the pieces add to Rauner's sizeable collection of children's books by
Theodor S. Geisel '25 (Dr. Seuss), editions in the Edward P. Sine '51
Collection of British Illustrated Books, and pieces in the Class of 1926
Memorial Collection. "Our rich illustrated book collections allow students to
examine changing patterns in children's literature. You can tell a lot about
how a society views childhood, for example, simply by seeing how it teaches its
young the alphabet."
The gift is in recognition of the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Roth Center for Jewish
Life at Dartmouth, the home of both Dartmouth Hillel and the Upper Valley Jewish Community. Wise has been
involved with the center since its inception. "The Dartmouth community has
become very important to me," says Wise, who has lived in the area for the past
16 years. "I value the relationships I have formed, and I greatly appreciate
how much the College has contributed to my quality of life. I'm delighted to do
this at a time that honors the Roth Center."
Materials from the collection will be immediately accessible to researchers
while it is being catalogued. There will be a celebratory exhibition based on
the collection at Baker-Berry Library beginning in April 2008.
By STEVEN J. SMITH
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