Of Sendak, Where The Wild Things Are and Heritage Auctions

Oct. 16, 2009

Posted by Noah

I will admit that I'm curious the see Spike Jonze's Where The Wild Things Are as it opens this weekend nationwide, though I know the chances of me doing that are, oh, let's see... Slim to none. No babysitter for our daughter, and no way she - 3-1/2 years old - would be able to make it through a movie that is, from what I've read and seen, a little too intense for kids as little as she.

No, more than likely I will have to wait for about two years until it shows up on TNT, or some cable outlet like that, joining the wretched Harry Potter movies and the always compelling Lord of the Rings movies in perpetual holiday rotation. It's not what I would choose, it's simply the way it is...

Here at Heritage Auctions there is, of course, a Sendak history, and Where The Wild Things Are figures most prominently in it. Numerous first edition Wild Things have shown up in our Rare Books events, with a very rare first edition of the book selling for $3,346 in June of 2008. There have also been posters, signed prints and various other Wild Things stuff that have brought the greatest prices.

The one that beats them all, however, and is the rarest of the rare when it comes to Sendak-related lots here at Heritage, dates back only to February of this year, when an original Wild Things backdrop landscape, from the brush of the master himself, brought almost $75,000 as part of an Illustration Art Auction. As I've said before in this blog, that's a big matzoh ball! Sendak Art never comes up for auction - almost never - as it's all been given to a private foundation for safekeeping. While I'd love to see more come through Heritage Auctions, I'm okay with this. Sendak is a national treasure, and his drawings should be treated as such.

There is, actually, another Sendak Wild Things drawing in the Oct. 27 Illustration Art Auction, a Wild Thing Nutcracker ballet set design, a gorgeous seascape with a cliff and Max's boat. It's estimated at $25,000+, which I would say, plebe though I may be, is a wee bit conservative. More like $50,000 and up, I'd reckon.

Though you probably haven't noticed, I've avoided giving my personal feelings on the book, which I love deeply. Along with In The Night Kitchen and Outside Over There, Where The Wild Things Are forms the centerpiece of what is easily the greatest modern trilogy of little kids' books. They are complex, joyful, frightening, unbelievably beautiful and, simply, a ton of fun to read. I'll avoid saying much else because A) it's all being written right now b/c of this movie and B) Most every American born post-1960 has read this book a thousand times themselves and a few thousand more to their own kids and grandkids.

I will say this: I think I always viewed the Wild Things themselves as a little more sinister than they appear to be in the movie. When they said "We'll eat you up, we love you so!" I always assumed that they did indeed want to eat him up, and that it was their plan all along. This probably says more about me and my emerging world view as a child than about how badly everyone else interpreted this book, but, really, who's asking?

Reviews on Jonze's movie have been quite favorable, and by all accounts he's captured the spirit of the book - a monumental achievement if he did. Much like LOTR, fans have been shaking with fear for years that this movie would actually happen, let alone daring to hope that it would actually be good - as rife as Hollywood is with bad kids movies and commercialism gone awry (New Wild Things Cereal from Kellogs! Unleash the Wild Thing within - with a good breakfast!) we all had good reason to think this movie would just stink.

Even though I won't get to see it for a few years, I'm glad to hear that indeed it doesn't stink, isn't just kinda bad, but is actually good and true to the spirit of the book and the intent of the writer. Hollywood take note: you can actually make a good movie by being true to the original source material.

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-Noah Fleisher

A close encounter with great children’s art

Feb. 26, 2009
Posted by Noah

Yesterday, at the invitation of David Lisot, our Director of Video, I took a lunchtime stroll up to the executive conference room where he was filming some video lot descriptions for various categories. I walked in right in the middle of filming a few choice specimens from an important California Collection of mostly children’s art from the upcoming Illustration Auction, March 12-13.

On the table were two original drawings from the Madeline series, by Austrian-born Ludwig Bemelmans. Without thinking, I immediately quoted:

“In a little house in Paris, that’s covered in vines, lived 12 little girls in two straight lines. In two straight lines they broke their bread, brushed their teeth and went to bed. They left the house at half past nine. The smallest one was Madeline.”

Lisot looked at me like I had uttered some arcane phrase from a long dead language. Todd Hignite, Consignment Director for Illustrations and Comics Art, laughed. He knew exactly what I meant. He has a two-year-old daughter. I have a three-year-old. If you have a well-read toddler girl at home, or had one, then you’ve read the great Madeline series.

I subsequently spent the rest of the day thinking about the vast amount of children’s literature and books that populate our bookshelves (and floors and cabinets and closets and cars) at home, and about those that stand out – those that I break out sparingly at my daughter’s bedtime because I personally love them so much. I have to number Madeline as chief among my current delights, and hers. And there I was yesterday, staring at two perfectly prime examples of Bemelmans’ airy, surreal drawings of Madeline and Pepito – that bad hat!

Three years ago I knew quite little of children’s literature and art, now I get weak in the knees at seeing prime examples of my favorites. Trust me, if I were in a position to bid on these paintings – and any number of others, including original Sendak and Seuss art, very rare! – from this specific collection, I would in a heartbeat; I have my daughter to thank for this appreciation. The process of observing the change in my own perspective, as I’ve come to intimately know much of this great art via hundreds of readings, has been refreshing and, dare I say it, delightful. Let it just be one more thing that I am grateful to her for.

The true greats of Children’s literature – see Sendak (In The Night Kitchen is one of my favorite books ever, of any genre. Period.) and Seuss above – don’t go cheap because they are so rare. Greatness on the level of Bemelmans, and many of the others, is relatively affordable to an average collector. Anywhere from $500 to a few thousand dollars can get you something pretty extraordinary. You just have to know what you like.

“The drawings from the first part of the 20th century, value-wise, are not up there with the big magazine guys of the times,” Todd said. “Some, of course, are very well respected and in museums. The peak period of children’s art, like Dr. Seuss, are extremely rare and expensive because they don’t really exist in private hands. In fact, Seuss and Sendak, two of the biggest, both gave their papers and archives to universities and values are quite high for the rare originals that come up.”

Space is short, as is time, so I’ll spare you the list of my favorite kids books, though I’d be happy to hear yours – just for fun – at NoahF@HA.com.

That’s all there is, there is no more.