A young Maurice Sendak’s illustration of two possible outcomes of atomic power.
Newswise — WASHINGTON, Aug 21, 2024 – Many childhoods have been shaped by the works of Maurice Sendak, whose deeply emotional stories and fantastical illustrations have captured the imaginations of millions. Before Sendak started writing and illustrating children’s books, he illustrated a book about atomic physics. It was his first credited work.
In Physics Today, science writer and historian Ryan Dahn showcases several of Sendak’s most striking illustrations from the book in a new article, “Where the atomic nuclei are: Maurice Sendak, physics illustrator.”
The 1947 book, “Atomics for the Millions,” was written in part by Hyman Ruchlis, Sendak’s high school physics teacher. Ruchlis asked the 18-year-old Sendak to illustrate the book in exchange for a small cut of the royalties and, allegedly, a passing grade in his class.
In his article, Dahn walks through the illustrations and their scientific context. Published shortly after World War II, the book echoes common social attitudes from the Atomic Age, expressing both hope for a cleaner future and fears of its destruction.
“Sendak’s illustrations for ‘Atomics for the Millions’ are more than just an interesting curio,” said Dahn. “They reveal early postwar anxieties about the possibility of nuclear war and even appear to hint at the famed artist’s lifelong struggle with depression.”
“Atomics for the Millions” was written as a popular science book, and many of Sendak’s illustrations explain complex physics through understandable metaphor. In his drawings, atoms are depicted as dancers coupling together to form molecules, a nuclear chain reaction is compared to a series of chain letters overwhelming a hapless postal worker, and Albert Einstein’s famous equation relating matter and energy is illustrated with Einstein himself pondering a set of scales containing the two.
Although it would be many years before Sendak began writing and illustrating children’s books, the illustrations contain his characteristic imaginative style and willingness to explore emotional topics. One drawing, demonstrating the disease-fighting potential of radiation, employs violent wartime imagery, while another reframes radioactive decay as a form of atomic suicide.
Sendak’s final illustration in the book echoes a theme woven throughout its pages, of a society needing to grapple with both the potential and peril of the atom. In his artwork, he draws a literal crossroads, one road leading to nuclear war, and the other, a peaceful utopia. While neither vision has come to pass, Sendak’s informative and entertaining illustrations likely helped readers struggling to understand a rapidly changing world, just as his later illustrations would help their children.
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“Where the atomic nuclei are: Maurice Sendak, physics illustrator” is available online now. It will appear in print in a future issue of Physics Today, the flagship publication of the American Institute of Physics.
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