For Ruthie: Ruth Krauss, Maurice Sendak, and Their Young Philosophers

February 10 – June 20, 2010

Maurice Sendak once praised Ruth Krauss as one of the “grand, inspired, towering women who invented the American children’s book from scratch.”  She was his collaborator, mentor, and friend.  Their books throughout the 1950s shared an energy, humor, and honest approach to childhood that marked them as innovators in children’s publishing.  For Ruthie is the first exhibition of its kind to explore their working relationship and its influence on Sendak’s subsequent work.  Krauss’s texts and Sendak’s original drawings—alongside their correspondence and working materials—will show the unfettered imagination and infectious playfulness of these two giants of children’s literature.