TBW Daily Diary

Another rainy day; it certainly is washing out our Mother's Day business . . . The shipment of silver rings (most with a Celtic flavor) has arrived. Happy to say that the price will remain at $17 each. Quite a selection in Size 7 this time around . . . Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are, has died. I saw him at a library convention in Kansas City back in the sixties. We stood in a semi-circle at a discreet distance and looked on in awe. He was there to sign books and chat, but we did not want to impose . . . Some weeks later a friend in Philadelphia wondered how he might contact Sendak to have a book autographed for a nephew. I happened to have Sendak's Greenwich Village home phone and suggested that Randy call him the next time he was in New York. He did so and got a big surprise. Sendak invited him for Sunday brunch at his apartment and also inscribed the book . . . Sendak said he did not like being a celebrity. Everyone stands across the room and points but no one comes up and talks to you. It is very lonely, he said . . .