For many of us, Where the Wild Things Are was the great bedtime story, one of childhood rebellion, confronting fearful things and freedom in the imagination, and considering what it means to come home. Yet Maurice Sendak was not just the author and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are but a prolific talent who captured in equal parts the dark corners and whimsy of childhood. In honor of his birthday, we're sharing facts about Sendak you may not have known.

1) Sendak adored noses.
In 2011, Sendak was working on a book about noses. He atrributed his love of the olfactory organ to his brother, who had a great nose in Sendak's opinion.

2) Sendak worked at the New York City toy store, F.A.O. Schwartz.
At age twenty, Sendak began working at F.A.O. Schwartz creating window displays. It was through his work at the shop that he met his editor.

3) Where the Wild Things Are was not Sendak's first choice for a title.
Sendak first considered the title Where the Wild Horses Are. Later, he decided against horses in favor of "things," the fanciful creatures now beloved by children.

4) One illustration in Outside Over There is based on the Lindbergh kidnapping.
In Sendak's picture book about a young girl who must rescue her baby sister who has been taken by goblins, there is an illustration of a ladder leaning out of the window of a home. This was based on the crime scene in the Lindbergh kidnapping, which terrified Sendak as a child.

5) Sendak wrote and illustrated Where the Wild Things Are while living close to the Jefferson Market Library.
At the time, Sendak lived in a basement apartment at 29 West 9th Street. We now like to think of it as a favorite NYC literary landmark.

6) Once, Sendak collaborated with the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner.
In 2003, Sendak illustrated a book, Brundibar, written by Kushner. The book was based on an opera by Hans Krasa and was performed by children in the concentration camp Theresienstadt.

7) If he had had a child, Sendak would have preferred a daughter.
Speaking to Terry Gross of NPR, Sendak said that if he had a son he "would leave him at the A&P or some other big advertising place where somebody who needs a kid would find him and he would be all right."

8) Sendak designed costumes and sets for ballets.
When the Pacific Northwest staged The Nutcracker in 1983, it was with the help of Sendak's rich visual imagination.

9) The state of publishing today bothered Sendak.
In an interview with The Believer, Sendak expressed his opinion that publishing had become stupid due to the near-monopoly of Rupert Murdoch on the industry.

10) Sendak illustrated Tolstoy.
In 1963, Sendak's illustrated children's edition of Nikolenka's Childhood was published.