Books and Manuscripts

A group of four intimate illustrated notes from Maurice Sendak to his psychiatrist Bert Slaff

No places, no dates (presumably New York, etc., ca. 1950s-60s). A remarkable collection of four illustrated notes from a young Maurice Sendak to his psychiatrist and friend Bertram Slaff. Comprising three sketches on small cards and one sketch on a small envelope; each float-mounted to one board and measuring from 2 x 4 in. (51 x 102 mm) to 3 x 5 in. (76 x 127 mm). In frame, 15 x 8 in. (381 x 203 mm).

An extremely intimate collection of illustrated notes, sent by a young Sendak to his psychiatrist, Bertram Slaff (1922-2013), sometime during their ten years in session together. These illustrated notes--using a shape-shifting variety of human and animal forms--are suggestive of Sendak's struggle to negotiate, with the professional help of Slaff, his own identity and desires as gay and closeted. In Sendak's first note, sexual frustration is represented by a couple, drawn as dogs, in the intimate setting of a bedroom, and accompanied by the note, "maybe next year he'll get into bed with her!." The second note, drawn on the front of an envelope, places the same dog in an analyst's chair, smoking, and talking to a psychiatrist. The third note depicts the physical and psychological transformation of an frustrated child into a chicken, then back again, and the fourth and final note features an inscription to Slaff: "The picture is an illustration from one of the books I did for Meindert De Jong. He kind of expresses what I most feel-he looks unhappy-but he honestly isn't...", accompanied by a small illustration of an adolescent turning away from a mirror reflecting a large stallion; underneath Sendak finishes, "(No more the White Stallion--I hope)."

Sendak started treatment with Slaff in the early 1950s, when, as literary scholar Golan Y. Moskowitz writes, Sendak was, "Continuously battling difficult feelings..." In 1952 Sendak moved to an apartment on East Fifty-Fourth Street between Madison and Park avenues in Manhattan, only a few blocks away from the apartment of Slaff and his partner--and later long-time friend of Sendak's--the novelist Coleman Dowell (1925-85). It was likely during this time that Sendak met Slaff through their mutual circle of friends. Moskowitz writes that, "the artist [Sendak] soon began long-term psychotherapy. As he put it, he 'keeled over. I just really ran out of steam and I was too frightened. I just lost it. And a very good friend of mine then paid for my first session [of therapy]. He said "You have to help yourself." And I went and I stayed for 10 years.' Speaking of his therapist, Bertram Slaff, who was also gay and Jewish, Sendak would later admit, 'I wanted him to hammer me straight, but of course that failed.' But the artist would later praise Slaff, telling Rolling Stone, 'a large part of my 20s was spent on the analyst's couch [see lot for an illustrated caricature of this]. And it enriched and deepened me and gave me confidence to express much that I might not have without it."' (p. 99, Wild Visionary: Maurice Sendak in Queer Jewish Context, 2020)

Bertram Slaff was a co-founder of the New York Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, president of the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, and held leadership positions in the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists. He started private practice in 1949--not long before he started sessions with Sendak--during which time he was an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Child-Adolescent Division of the Mt. Sinai Department of Psychiatry. While Slaff and Sendak's relationship began on the analyst's couch, it soon blossomed into a long friendship that included Slaff's partner, the novelist Coleman Dowell. Sendak's sessions with Slaff lasted for ten years and were influential for Sendak's work (Kenny's Window [1956], the first book both written and illustrated by Sendak is dedicated to Slaff).

An important glimpse into Sendak's inner life during the early stages of his career, offered here for the first time ever.