For so many of us, Maurice Sendak’s books are a great memory from our younger years. The man who shared with us, “Where the Wild Things Are”  died yesterday at age 83.

The children’s book author and illustrator published many award winning books but he tended to shy away from the limelight and loathed publishing marketing events.  He said he couldn’t stand the thought of parents dragging children to wait on line for hours to see a little old man in think glasses.

“Kids don’t know about best sellers,” he said. “They go for what they enjoy. They aren’t star chasers and they don’t suck up. It’s why I like them.”

For those of you who want a bit more info about Maurice Sendak, here is a cheat sheet on his life and career put together by DoSomething.org

His life:

• He was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1928.
• Many of Sendak’s relatives died in the Holocaust, which he said had a large influence on his childhood.
• Sendak’s books are not only known for their acclaim but how frequently they were banned and censored.
• Sendak was gay and lived with his partner Eugene Glynn for most of his adult life, but he never came out to his parents.

His Career:

• He began his career as an illustrator in the 1940s by creating pictures for a physics textbook.
• He won the Caldecott Medal in 1964 for Where the Wild Things Are.
• Kenny’s Window, published in 1956, was the first book he both wrote and drew the pictures for.
• His most recent children’s book titled Bumble-Ardy was published in September 2011.
• Sendak won many awards for writing and illustrating over his long career, including the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration and the National Medal of the Arts.