Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Museum celebrates Maurice Sendak’s early artworks

Maurice Sendak was a gifted storyteller from a young age, said longtime friend and Rosenbach Museum Director Derick Dreher. “He really was a storyteller from his earliest days,” Dreher said.

The quaint museum, under-the-radar at 20th and Delancy streets, was open to the public free of charge today in memoriam of Sendak’s death.

Sendak died this morning at the age of 83.

“As a child, he was sickly and he was not allowed to go out and play stickball with the other kids, so he would sit on his stoop and tell stories to other people,” Dreher said. “Everyone gathered around him.”

“This was a place where people he was inspired by also lived in our collection and he wanted to live with them,” said Director of Collections Judith Guston.