Nikolenka's Childhood: An Edition for Young Readers

Leo Tolstoy was born in 1928 in Yasnaya Polyana, Tula Province, Russia, into a family of the old nobility. His best-known works include War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and Resurrection. During the Revolution of 1905, he came out on the side of the Russian peasantry, but in accordance with his doctrine, he categorically opposed revolutionary violence. He died in 1910.

Maurice Sendak was born June 10, 1928, in Brooklyn, NY. He received the 1964 Caldecott Medal for Where the Wild Things Are. In 1970 he received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal for illustration, and he remains the only American ever awarded this honor. In 1983, Sendak received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the American Library Association, given in recognition of his entire body of work. He also received a 1996 National Medal of Arts in recognition of his contribution of arts in America. He illustrated over 80 books. He died May 8, 2012.