Sendak gives $1 million to N.Y. Jewish agency

Children’s book author Maurice Sendak has given $1 million to the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services of New York.

Sendak, 82, who wrote the iconic children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are,” gave the money in honor of his life partner, Eugene Glynn, a longtime psychiatrist for the organization.

The money will go toward general operating support, and the organization will name one of its 15 clinics after Glynn, who died in 2007, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“He was very alarmed at the position of children in New York and wanted to be part of that salvation, if that’s not too grand of a word,” Sendak said about Glynn. “Leading a selfish life is unbearable … what Eugene did to save lives, I am trying to do artistically.”

Sendak added, “I’m getting to be an old man, and the only point in my life is to do these books, to tell children the truth.” — jta