Jack Sendak

{{short description|American writer}}

Jack Sendak (July 20, 1923{{Cite web |url=https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/JRQX-B57 |title= Jack Sendak, "United States Social Security Death Index"|accessdate= 10 June 2013|author=FamilySearch|website= FamilySearch|author-link=FamilySearch}} – February 3, 1995) was an American children's literature author. He was the brother of Maurice Sendak and the son of Philip Sendak.

Sendak served in the U.S. Army during the Second World War and later worked for Emerson Radio and Television. He credited his father with inspiring his storytelling talent through his regular bedtime folk tales. Two of his books, Circus Girl (1957) and The Happy Rain (1956), were illustrated by his brother, Maurice. Two other books were illustrated by Mitchell Miller Jr. (b.1947), son of popular conductor Mitch Miller, whom Maurice Sendak described as "one of the most gifted of the new generation of illustrators."{{Cite book |last=Stone |first=Desmond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1qF2kRdMNCwC&q=Mitchell+%22Mike%22+Miller&pg=PA171 |title=Alec Wilder in Spite of Himself: A Life of the Composer |date=1996-04-25 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-535728-8 |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Wersba |first=Barbara |date=1968-07-21 |title=MARTZE. By Jack Sendak. Illustrated by Mitchell Miller. 70 pp. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $3.50. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1968/07/21/archives/martze-by-jack-sendak-illustrated-by-mitchell-miller-70-pp-new-york.html |access-date=2023-02-26 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news |last=Babbitt |first=Natalie |date=1972-03-05 |title=Poor Treehorn, poor Yanos; The Magic Tears; By Jack Sendak. Illustrated by Mitchell Miller. 58 pages. New York: Harper & Row. $3.95. (Ages 7 to 11) |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/03/05/archives/the-magic-tears-by-jack-sendak-illustrated-by-mitchell-miller-58.html |access-date=2023-02-26 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite book |last1=Montreville |first1=Doris De |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ju3TENSZJqwC&q=%22mitchell+miller%22+ |title=Fourth Book of Junior Authors & Illustrators |last2=Crawford |first2=Elizabeth D. |date=1978 |publisher=H. W. Wilson Company |isbn=978-0-8242-0568-3 |language=en}} Jack's 1971 book, The Magic Tears, illustrated by Miller, won the Children's Book Showcase award.

Jack Sendak died on February 3, 1995, at the age of 71, in New Jersey. He was survived by his wife.{{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/04/obituaries/jack-sendak-71-a-writer-of-surrealist-books-for-children.html?pagewanted=1 |title= Jack Sendak, 71, a Writer Of Surrealist Books for Children|accessdate=17 March 2010 |author=Saxon, Wolfgang |author-link= | date=February 1995 |format= |work=New York Times |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= }}