American author and illustrator Maurice Sendak was BOTD in 1928. Born in Brooklyn, New York to Polish Jewish immigrant parents, he grew up traumatised by family stories of surviving the Holocaust. He developed an early interest in illustrating children’s books, studying drawing at the New York Art Students League, and began working professionally in 1947. After several years as an illustrator, he published his first self-written and illustrated children’s book, Kenny’s Window, in 1956. He became internationally famous for his 1963 picture book Where The Wild Things Are, the tale of a rebellious boy navigating a hostile and dangerous world populated by furry monsters. His illustrations were originally considered too frightening for young children, but it grew to become one of the most beloved and influential children’s books of the 20th century, inspiring an opera and a 2009 live-action feature film. His 1970 book In the Night Kitchen, based on his childhood memories of New York, was also a success, though has frequently been banned from schools and libraries for its illustrations of a naked child protagonist. Sendak illustrated Isaac Bashevis Singer’s first children’s book Zlateh the Goat, and famously worked with puppeteer Jim Henson to create the friendly monsters of cult children’s TV series Sesame Street. In 1993, Sendak published We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy, a polemic about the US government’s inaction about the HIV/AIDs crisis in the guise of a children’s book. He also designed sets and costumes for ballets and operas at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Houston Grand Opera and New York City Opera. In 2003, he collaborated with playwright Tony Kushner on an English-language version of Hans Krása’s 1938 opera Brundibár, which had been performed by the child prisoners of Theresienstadt concentration camp during World War Two. Openly gay since forever, he lived with his partner, psychotherapist Eugene Glynn, for 50 years until Glynn’s death in 2007. He died in 2012, aged 83.