Ursula Nordstrom

Nordstrom's relationship with Maurice Sendak combined editorial judgement with sustained encouragement and defence of challenging work. In the Night Kitchen is a revealing example: supporting the artist also meant standing behind a book that adults tried to censor. Sendak's own foundation places her alongside Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson in his circle of mentors. That shared context matters. Her letters offer a working view of encouragement joined to literary judgement, with the difficult days of making a book still visible.