Ridgefield resident Maurice Sendak, widely considered the most important children’s book artist of the 20th century, died in May of 2012 at the age of 83.
Five years after his death, a wildly beautiful literary discovery has been made. It’s called Presto and Zesto in Limboland.
Publisher’s Weekly announced on Thursday, July 6 that Lynn Caponera, president of the Maurice Sendak Foundation, was going through the late artist’s files last year when she the typewritten manuscript, co-authored by Sendak and his frequent collaborator, Arthur Yorinks.
In a news release, Arthur Yorinks stated, “Nearly twenty years ago, Maurice and I, inspired by our friendship, conceived this book about two friends making their way in a very mixed-up world. Publishing PRESTO AND ZESTO IN LIMBOLAND, with the help of our editor, Michael di Capua, and Lynn Caponera, is not only a stroke of serendipity. It is a moment of sublime joy.”
Sendak created the manuscript in 1990 and, Publisher’s Weekly reports, not only is the manuscript complete, but the book’s illustrations are finished as well. They say Sendak wrote Presto and Zesto in Limboland to accompany a London Symphony Orchestra performance of Leoš Janáček’s Rikadla, a 1927 composition that set a series of nonsense Czech nursery rhymes to music.
HarperCollins Publishers announced yesterday that Presto and Zesto in Limboland, story by Arthur Yorinks and Maurice Sendak and illustrations by Maurice Sendak, will be published by Michael di Capua Books / HarperCollins in the Fall of 2018.