The Big Green Book

Robert Graves is best known for his novel I, Claudius, which was turned into a Masterpiece Theater blockbuster megahit in 1976. He was born in 1895 in London, England, and went from school to the First World War, where he became a captain in the Royal Welch Fusiliers and was seriously wounded at the Battle of the Somme. He published his autobiography, Goodbye to All That, in 1929, and it was soon established as a modern classic, followed by I, Claudius in 1934. He died in 1985 in Majorca, his home since 1929.

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.