Tom Gregersen has been responsible for planning, designing and installing more than 100 exhibitions at the Morikami. (Damon Higgins / Palm Beach Post)

THE SCENE MAKER: 
TOM GREGERSEN

WHO HE IS: Gregersen is the cultural director at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach. He holds a master’s degree in Japanese Studies from the University of Michigan, and before joining the Morikami in 1978, Gregersen taught English as a second language in Japan. During his tenure at the Morikami, Gregersen has been responsible for planning, designing and installing more than 100 museum exhibitions and for overseeing the museum’s curatorial, collections, and education departments. Gregersen has authored or edited several exhibition-related catalogues and is currently working on a book about the Yamato Colony. He and his wife Sandi have one son and one daughter and live in Delray Beach.

A few of his favorite things:
FAVORITE CULTURAL INSTITUTION TO VISIT (OTHER THAN THE MORIKAMI!):
The Norton Museum of Art. I enjoy their special exhibitions and East Asian offerings, and I’m grateful that they are not competing with Morikami for Japanese art.
The Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach. Info: (561) 832-5196; norton.org

FAVORITE MOVIE THEATER:
The Regal Cinema. My son is employed there.
Regal Delray Beach 18, 1660 S. Federal Highway, Delray Beach. Info: (561) 272-0510; regmovies.com

FAVORITE PLACE TO SEE A LIVE PERFORMANCE:
I’ve enjoyed the offerings at the Kravis Center, but also like to sample the jazz offerings at the Arts Garage in Delray Beach.
The Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach. Info: (561) 832-7469; kravis.org
The Arts Garage, 180 N.E. First St., Delray Beach. Info: (561) 450-6357; artsgarage.org

FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX AND RECHARGE:
Sandi and I sometimes take books and beach chairs to the beach in the mid- to late-afternoon.
Delray Municipal Beach, South Ocean Boulevard. Info: (561) 272-3224.

FAVORITE PLACE FOR A QUIET DINNER:
Seasons 52 in Boca Raton offers consistently good food with a seasonal touch as well as good service in relaxed surroundings.
Seasons 52, 2300 N.W. Executive Center Drive, Boca Raton. Info: (561) 998-9952; seasons52.com

FAVORITE WAY TO SPEND A SUNDAY AFTERNOON:
Sandi and I sometimes go walking at the Wakodahatchee and Green Cay nature preserves.
The Wakodahatchee Wetlands, 13026 Jog Road, Delray Beach. Info: (561) 641-3429.
Green Cay Nature Center, 12800 Hagen Ranch Road Boynton Beach. Info: (561) 966-7000.

FAVORITE PLACE IN THE MORIKAMI’S GARDENS:
The Late Rock Garden, especially in the afternoon. It’s a delightful enclosed space with benches which looks out over an expanse of raked gravel with a few large boulders placed judiciously here and there.
Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, 4000 Morikami Park Road, Delray Beach. Info: (561) 495-0233. morikami.org

WHY I LOVE LIVING IN PALM BEACH COUNTY:
Of course the climate but also the tremendous variety of things to do and access to museums, libraries, theaters, and nature centers.

If you are producer Cameron Mackintosh and the show is Les Misérables, you mount a reconceived production and put it on the road to make new fans and more money.

Now, two years later, that new take on Les Miz has arrived at the Kravis Center, looking fresh and sounding terrific.

Redirected more conventionally by the team of Laurence Connor and James Powell, there are things that a longtime fan of the show will probably miss – like the stunning original turntable staging by Trevor Nunn and John Caird. But there are enough new ideas and visuals to attract audiences, both veterans and first-timers, to the epic musical.

It was probably always folly to try and harness Victor Hugo’s 1,222-page novel of 19th-century French history into a three-hour theatrical event, but that is part of what makes the show such a startling achievement.

Of the several British mega-musicals of the 1980s, Les Miz is the most unlikely and the most artistically satisfying.

Much of Hugo’s serpentine novel was jettisoned by adapters Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, who concentrate on the relentless cat-and-mouse chase between police inspector Javert (Andrew Varela) and convict-turned-nobleman Jean Valjean (Peter Lockyer), as well as the romance between Valjean’s adopted daughter Cosette (Lauren Wiley) and student revolutionary Marius (Max Quinlan).

Scenically, the production employs artwork inspired by Hugo, which is often moody and murky. Still, when it is animated, as in Valjean’s travels through the sewers of Paris, the technique is remarkably effective.

Besides the turntable, the most iconic set piece in the original show was the kinetic barricade behind which the student rebels battle.

Scenic designer Matt Kelly’s version is less impressive, but it certainly suffices.

The Schönberg score (with English lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer) is through-sung, opera-style, which puts substantial demands on the cast.

But you would never know it from the performance by Lockyer, who can belt the introspective Who Am I?, then soar in his upper register on the prayer aria Bring Him Home. Very much his equal vocally is Varela, who handles his two solos (Stars, Soliloquy) with authority.

Timothy Gulan and Shawna M. Hamic are fine as the larcenous Thernardiers, but their abrasive music-hall comic relief has always been the weakest link of the script.

More successful is Chasten Harmon as their lovelorn daughter Eponine, who handles the plaintive On My Own with pop-star panache.

This December, the movie musical of the show will be released, which already has Misérables-heads cringing with worry.

Before that shoe drops, treat yourself to the pleasures of the stage show. Minus the turntable, that is.

R E V I E W

LES MISÉRABLES

B+

Where: Kravis Center Dreyfoos Hall, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach.

When: Through Saturday.

Tickets: $27 and up. Call: (561) 832-7469.

The verdict: A restaged, redesigned 25th-anniversary production of the epic British musical of the classic Hugo novel, with a strong-voiced cast led by Peter Lockyer as Jean Valjean.

So Larry Silver’s new book Pieter Bruegel (Abbeville) was a welcome addition to the pile of books on my desk. Compared with other artists, not a lot is known about Bruegel, although an engraving of the artist shows a distinguished man in early middle age with a long beard.

The first official mention of him comes in 1551, in a listing of the Antwerp painter’s guild, when he presumably would have been between 25 to 30 years old. He married, had a son – also a painter – was commercially successful, highly regarded by his contemporaries, and died in 1569.

Silver previously wrote a book about Hieronymous Bosch, and he tends to bracket Bruegel in with the earlier artist. There are certainly some similarities – Bruegel’s Triumph of Death, is creepy but it lacks Bosch’s sense of the grotesque. Besides that, Bosch was much more of a one-trick pony, closer to William Blake than the far more naturalistic Bruegel.

Silver casts his net wide, and reproduces the work of many of Bruegel’s contemporaries, the better to put him in the context of his time. The best thing you can say about Silver’s book is that it’s worthy of its subject, and it’s also a testament to the continued value of lavishly produced art books.

Mike Browning’s Word of the Week…

peccable: capable of sin

‘PROOF’: Opens May 25 and runs through June 17, Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St, West Palm Beach. In this Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning drama, the daughter of a brilliant but mentally disturbed mathematician tries to come to grips with her possible inheritance: his insanity. Tickets: $55. (561) 514-4042.

‘UNDER THE SEA’: 7 p.m. May 25, Jupiter Community Center, 210 Military Trail, Jupiter. Jupiter Community Adult Dancers and soloists will perform the ballet. Admission is free. cballet123@aol.com or (561) 743-5837.

NOW PLAYING

‘GUYS AND DOLLS’: 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, Borland Center, 4901 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens. Frank Loesser’s musical, as presented by an all-youth cast from the Atlantic Arts Academy. Tickets: $20 for adults and $15 for students and children. (561) 575-4942; www.TheAtlanticTheater.com

‘GIVE MY REGARDS TO BROADWAY’: 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday, Pine Crest School Theater, 2700 St. Andrews Blvd., Boca Raton. A performance by the Countess de Hoernle Singers. Tickets: $15. (561) 866-1868; www.CdHSingers.com

‘LES MIS…RABLES’: Runs through May 26, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach. Cameron Mackintosh presents a brand-new 25th-anniversary production of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s legendary musical, with new staging and reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo. The score of Les Misérables includes the classic songs I Dreamed a Dream, On My Own, Do You Hear the People Sing? and One Day More. Tickets start at $27. (561) 832-7469.

‘I AM MUSIC: THE SONGS OF BARRY MANILOW’: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, through May 27, the Plaza Theatre, 262 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan. A revue-style show directed by award-winning director Kevin Black that features 10 vocalists and dancers. The storyline revolves around eight friends who reunite and are working to create their own show based on the music of Barry Manilow. $42. Info: (561) 588-1820 ; www.theplazatheatre.net.

’12 ANGRY MEN’: Runs through June 3, Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 N.W. 9th St., Delray Beach. The story of one courageous juror who wages a war of nerves with 11 other jurors to save the life of a 19-year-old accused of murder. Tickets: $30. (561) 272-1281, ext. 4.

‘columbinus’ : Runs through June 3, Bob Carter’s Actor’s Workshop & Repertory Company, 1009 N. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach. The Bhetty Waldron Theatre presents Stephen Karam and P.J. Paparelli’s documentary drama probing the psychological warfare of alienation, hostility, severe bullying and social pressure that goes on in schools across America. Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for students and are available from the www.actorsrep.org website or from www.boxofficetickets.com. (561) 301-2588.

AUDITIONS

‘THE WIZARD OF OZ’: 5 p.m. May 20 and 27, North Palm Beach Community Center, 1200 Prosperity Farms Road, North Palm Beach. Auditions are being held for The Village Players’ summer children’s play. Seventeen children ages 6 years and older are needed. Call (561) 641-1707 or www.villageplayersofnpb.com

The weekly pbpulse.com tour at 5:30 p.m. will take a closer look at The Art of Still Life.

As always, there will be food and drink specials offered in Cafe 1451.

When: 5-9 p.m. Thursday, May 24

Where: 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach

Admission: Free for members; $12 adults; $5 ages 13-21; free for younger than 13

Info: (561) 832-5196; norton.org

Picasso

Art After Dark, the Norton Museum’s popular Thursday evening event of art and entertainment continues from 5 to 9 p.m. and features a closer look at Picasso and Friends during the pbpulse.com tour at 5:30 p.m. American Art is the focus of the 6:30 p.m. tour.

Acoustic performer Jeff Harding plays from 5-7 p.m., and The Jason Cardinal Band performs from 7-9 p.m. At 1451 S. Olive Ave., west Palm Beach.

Free for members; $12 adults, $5 ages 13-21, free for younger than 13. Info: (561) 832-5196; norton.org

Ghost painting mounted as a hanging scroll; Meiji period, late 19th century. (From the Clark Family Collection)

“Ghost story-telling is really a summer activity in Japan,” says Tom Gregersen, the cultural director at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens. So just in time for summer vacation, the Morikami opens “Ghosts, Goblins, and Gods: The Supernatural in Japanese Art” on Tuesday.

New version of 'Les Miserables' playing at the Kravis.

Les Misérables, the international hit stage show based on Victor Hugo’s 1862 classic novel, is the third longest-running musical in Broadway history.

Over the years, it has been performed in 38 countries, translated into 21 languages, and is currently playing at the Kravis Center in a restaged and redesigned 25th anniversary production.

Cameron Mackintosh, the show’s producer, was interested in giving the show a new look, based on the advances in theater technology over the past quarter-century. The guiding principle, says associate director Anthony Lyn, the man in charge of maintaining the American tour, is “if one were approaching it new today, what would one do?”

Most noticeable are the lighting and sound design, which have taken quantum leaps forward since Les Miz premiered in London in 1985. In addition, notes Lyn, “There’s new orchestrations and different instruments are used in that orchestration to give it a more modern sound.”

And the scenic design is now based on artwork by Hugo himself. “Yes, one of the finest writers in history was also a very prolific artist,” Lyn says. “A lot of the projections throughout the show suggest a setting or in the case of his more abstract work, evoke an emotion.”

It is unlikely that you have seen any of the show’s performers before. “Purposely, it’s a very young cast, a lot of them straight out of college, so there’s a renewed energy about it,” explains Lyn. “As a result, the show has gotten a new life, reaching new audiences and going around the world all over again.”

He understands that many Kravis theatergoers have probably seen Les Misérables somewhere during the past 25 years, but Lyn insists this production makes the case for a return look. “It’s like seeing any old friend who’s had a wonderful makeover at a spa and has a lovely new hairstyle and looks great,” he says. “Looking young and vibrant.”

Dramaworks proves itself

If you needed proof that Palm Beach Dramaworks has become the county’s prime stage company for serious theater, check out the final production of its inaugural season on Clematis Street – David Auburn’s 2001 Pulitzer Prize winner, Proof -which begins previews Wednesday night, May 23.

The play concerns a 24-year-old Chicago woman who has spent years caring for her revered, but mentally unstable, math professor father.

She seems to have inherited some of his genius for mathematics and, perhaps, some of his mental illness.

But you will probably be pleased to hear that there is little actual math in the script.

“This is not a play about mathematics at all,” says director William Hayes assuringly. “It’s about relationships and trust. What we have to prove to ourselves, what others have to prove to us. And the delicate nature of building love and trustful relationships.”

“It’s a mystery, a love story, and it grabs the audience,” adds cast member Cliff Burgess. “When they walk out at intermission, they’re going to be talking about it.”

As Kenneth Kay, who plays the math professor, puts it:

“The reason for giving a Pulitzer Prize is that there’s something in there that all audiences everywhere identify with. Family is universal. And struggles within families, whether math is the background or sports or anything.”

While there is certainly conflict between characters, Proof is also surprisingly funny.

Playwright Auburn has “a terrific sense of humor. I think people are going to laugh,” offers actress Sarah Grace Wilson. “And they’ll recognize their own relationships probably.”

To Hayes, Proof represents what Palm Beach Dramaworks excels at. “What we do best is get inside the trials and tribulations of the human experience, the complexities of our human nature. I think this play exemplifies that in every way.”

LES MISÉRABLES, Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach. Continuing through May 26. Tickets: $27 and up. Call: (561) 832-7469.

PROOF, Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. Previews begin Wednesday . Runs May 25- June 17. Tickets: $55. Call: (561) 514-4042.

TROPICAL IMPRESSIONS: EMERGING ARTIST BONNIE WILBURN: Through Saturday, Bruce Webber Gallery, 705 Lucerne Ave., Lake Worth. An innovative style, vibrant colors and strong lines. Info: (561) 582-1045; www.webbergallery.com

AN ARTISTIC DISCOVERY: THE CONGRESSIONAL STUDENT ART SHOW: Through Sunday, Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. Features entries from Florida’s 19th Congressional District in the nationwide high school arts competition sponsored by the U.S. House of Representatives. Info: (561)392-2500; bocamuseum.org.

EXHIBITS AT BOCA MUSEUM OF ART: Through Sunday, Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. Info: (561)392-2500; bocamuseum.org.

• Will Barnet at 100: To mark the 100th birthday of pioneering painter, printmaker and educator Will Barnet (born May 25, 1911), this exhibition of nearly 50 works explores the evolution of Barnet’s art from realism to abstraction.
• Muted Imprints: An Installation by Misako Inaoka: Inaoka’s kinetic sculpture and site-specific installations evoke wilderness, but are grounded in technology.
• Glass Act: The contemporary studio art glass movement turns 50 and this survey of contemporary studio glass celebrates one-of-a-kind fine art glass pieces made in individual studios rather than glass factories.

FIELD OF COLORS: AN EXHIBITION BY ZIVI AVIRAZ: Through May 31, PBSC Eissey Campus Theatre Lobby Gallery, 3160 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens. Mixed media-acrylic paintings. Info: (561) 207-5905.

PAINTINGS IN THE AFTERMATH: Through May 31, Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, 4000 Morikami Park Road, Delray Beach. Japanese students painted in the aftermath of the tsunami of March 2011. Compiled from six schools in Japan’s Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, the paintings are based on three themes: Appreciation of World Friendship, My Life 10 Years from Now and What I Want to Do in the Future. Info: (561) 495-0233; www.morikami.org

IMPORTANT CERAMIC WORKS: Through June 2, Elaine Baker Gallery, Gallery Center, 608 Banyan Trail, Boca Raton. Works by Jun Kaneko, Peter Voulkos, Ken Price, Don Reitz, Toshiko Takaezu, Pablo Picasso, Michael Lucero, Tony Marsh, Rick Dillingham, Christine Federighi, Richard DeVore and Betty Woodman. Info: (561) 241-3050.

WYNN BULLOCK: INSIGHTS & SURPRISES: Through June 9, Palm Beach Photographic Centre, 415 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. The mid-20th century master photographer is best known for his evocative black and white images, but he also created a significant body of color work he called Color Light Abstractions. Info: (561) 253-2600; www.workshop.org or www.fotofusion.org.

OUTSIDE/ FLORIDA PHOTOGRAPHERS FACE-TO-FACE WITH THE MUSEUM COLLECTION: Through June 10, Norton Museum, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach. Selected photographers’ work, juxtaposed with works from the Norton’s Photography Collection. Featured photographers: Maria Martinez-Cañas of Miami; Alexander Diaz of St. Augustine; Valerie George of Pensacola, Christopher Morris of Tampa; and the team of Eduardo del Valle and Mirta Gómez of Miami. Christopher Morris will present an Artist Lecture at 6:30 p.m. Thursday . Info: (561) 832-5196; norton.org

DECODING MESSAGES IN CHINESE ART: Through June 24, Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach. A special installation of seven Chinese works of art features the newly acquired 13th century painting, Five Quail. Info: (561) 832-5196; norton.org

SOLO EXHIBITIONS: ELLE SCHORR AND MARK FOREMAN: Through July 2, Palm Beach Cultural Council, 601 Lake Ave., Lake Worth. Schorr, a Lake Worth resident, calls her photographs ‘contradictions and overlapping impressions of city life.’ Forman’s work challenges the ideas of Expressionism and Reduction. Info: (561) 472-3336; palmbeachcultural council.org

FORT MOSE: COLONIAL AMERICA’S BLACK FORTRESS OF FREEDOM: Through July 29, The Spady Cultural Heritage Museum, 170 N.W. Fifth Ave., Delray Beach. This exhibit from the Florida Museum of Natural History explores the history of Fort Mose, America’s first legally sanctioned free black community. Info: (561) 279-8883; www.spadymuseum.org.

PBC: ART: Through Aug. 4, Palm Beach County Cultural Council, in the Robert M. Montgomery Jr. Building, 601 Lake Ave., Lake Worth. A collection of 26 original works chosen from almost 400 submissions by a jury panel of art industry experts. Info: www.palmbeachculture.com

‘POP! MOVABLE BOOKS FROM THE ARTHUR J. WILLIAMS POP-UP COLLECTION: Through Aug. 12, The Jaffe Center for Book Arts at FAU Boca Raton campus, 777 Glades Road. Wildly colorful and interactive books that open to elements that pop up, slide and twirl. Info: (561) 297-3770; www.library.fau.edu/geninfo/hours.htm.

PARADISE IN PERIL: WORLD WAR II IN PALM BEACH COUNTY: Through Aug. 18, Richard and Pat Johnson Palm Beach County History Museum, 300 N. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach. Archival photographs of Palm Beach County citizens, maps of historically significant areas and artifacts. Free. Info: (561) 832-4164; www.historicalsocietypbc.org.

WHAT REMAINS REMEMBERS: Through Sept. 7, Palm Beach State Art Gallery Campus, 3160 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens. Features the work of Justin Rabineau. Info: (561) 207-5015.

NEW EYES SHOW: FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHER BARRY SEIDMAN: Through Oct. 31, Harris Private Bank, Phillips Point, 777 S. Flagler Drive, Suite 140 E, West Palm Beach. Seidman exhibits 85 pieces from various photographic series. Presented by the Lighthouse ArtCenter. Available by appointment through Christi Thompson at (561) 366-4218. www.BarrySeidman.com

AMERICAN MASTERS AT THE NORTON: Through Fall, Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach. Features the work of Clyfford Still and Joan Mitchell, masters of late 20th-century American painting. Still is credited with laying the groundwork for the Abstract Expressionism movement. Mitchell used paint directly from tubes, applying it with her hands and conceiving of compositions that worked from the center out, rather than over the entire surface of her canvas. Info: (561) 832-5196; norton.org

Cast of 'Les Miserables'

The acclaimed Les Misérables opens today  and runs through May 26 at Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach.

Cameron Mackintosh presents a brand-new 25th-anniversary production of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s legendary musical, with new staging and reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo. The score of Les Misérables includes the classic songs I Dreamed a Dream, On My Own, Do You Hear the People Sing? and One Day More.

Tickets start at $27. (561) 832-7469.

Alan Jacobson, theater producer at the Plaza Theatre in Manalapan (Bill Ingram/Palm Beach Post)

WHO HE IS: The Palm Beach Gardens resident is a theater producer who opened the Plaza Theatre in the old Florida Stage location earlier this year. (Its current musical revue, I Am Music: The Songs of Barry Manilow, runs through May 27.) Jacobson’s interests include racewalking, golf, watching sports and, of course, theater — “the Maltz, Dramaworks and especially the Caldwell. We need to support them all,” he says.

A few of his favorites:

FAVORITE PLACE TO WALK: “I enjoy walking along A1A in Jupiter when I work out. The beach is also a great place to take a casual, relaxing walk.”

FAVORITE GOLF COURSE: “Village Golf in Royal Palm Beach. Each week I play with my dad, cousin and a friend.”

Village Golf, 122 Country Club Dr., Royal Palm Beach, (561) 793-1400

FAVORITE SPORTS VENUE: “As a longtime competitor, and track and field fan, I love the track at Dwyer High School.”

FAVORITE MOVIE THEATER: “Downtown at the Gardens Cobb Theater. The atmosphere is wonderful.”

Cobb Downtown at the Gardens 16, 11701 Lake Victoria Gardens Ave., Palm Beach Gardens, (561) 253-0819

Shrimp and scallion scampi from Bizaare Avenue Cafe in Lake Worth (Post file photo)

FAVORITE RESTAURANTS: “I love hanging out at Bizaare in Lake Worth after shows. The Cheesecake Factory is also great. It is family-friendly and has something for everyone.”

Bizaare Ave Cafe, 921 Lake Ave., Lake Worth, (561) 588-4488

The Cheesecake Factory has locations in CityPlace, Downtown at the Gardens and in Boca Raton, near the Town Center mall.

­— Staci Sturrock

The most delightful portion of this book reprints Coward’s Hernia Whittlebot poems. Hernia was a concoction meant to satirize gloomy modernist poetry circa 1924, i.e., Edith Sitwell.

Coward developed a thorough backstory for his non-existent poetess – her publications included Peeps at Mice, which was a pale coming attraction for the triumph of Gilded Sluts.

Coward actually published some Whittlebot poems under the title Chelsea Buns. The poems themselves are glistening nonsense lyrics that recall Edward Lear.

Coward’s own poetry tended toward humor; he was always writing lyrics of mock-heroism or mock-longing to one friend or another. Here’s a sample written to his secretary while he was on vacation: “When I visit Venice, Italy/Lorn’s before me pouting prettily/Then again vast Yugoslavia/Reeks of Lorn’s divine behavia/Fishes in the Adriatic/Gasp for Lorn, become ecstatic…” Coward seems not to have taken his poetry seriously – indeed, he seems to have been frantically signaling that nobody else should either – but it’s still worth reading as a peripheral activity that a ceaselessly active writer made his own.

Coward would have appreciated Elizabeth Taylor – not the actress, but the English writer of the mid-20th century. The New York Review of Books has reissued several of her novels. The most attractive is Angel, a quietly devastating portrait of a fantasist named Angelica Deverell who grows up to be a successful kitsch novelist and who lives so thoroughly in her fantasies of herself that she’s oblivious to the destruction she causes.

In the Pipeline…

Delacorte will publish a trilogy of gothic thrillers under the umbrella title Grotesque. Page Morgan’s novels are about two sisters in turn-of-the-20th-century Paris who are searching for a brother who’s gone missing. The publisher says that Morgan reinvents “gargoyle mythology.”

And all this time I wasn’t aware that gargoyles had a mythology.

Mike Browning’s Word of the Week…

peirastic: experimental

Quote Unquote…

“Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.”

Schmidt Steps Back is Louis Begley’s third novel about Arthur Schmidt, the widowed Wall Street banker grappling with age, an intransigent daughter, incipient anti-Semitism, and the vague possibility of a fourth act.

When last we saw Schmidt, back in 2000′s Schmidt Delivered, he had graciously sent off his young mistress to be married, even though she was carrying a child that might be Schmidt’s. As the new novel opens, Carrie is about to deliver said baby, and the identity of the father is still up in the air.

Begley supplies Schmidt with an ever-generous fairy godfather in the person of the incalculably wealthy Mike Mansour, who employs Schmidt at his foundation, and whose generosity allows Schmidt to spend considerable amounts of money trying to put his daughter’s emotional toothpaste back in the tube.

It also allows him to spend a lot of time in Paris, where he can continue his pursuit of Alice, the widow of a former colleague with whom Schmidt is more or less madly in love, not to mention lust.

Schmidt is a touching figure, not necessarily concerned with trying to be the best Schmidt he can be, but not unsympathetic either. He’s capable of cruelty, but also of generosity; of infidelity as well as loyalty. Schmidt is Begley’s version of Updike’s Rabbit – deeply flawed but deeply human. And, like Rabbit, Schmidt has the sex life of a much younger man.

Begley flips back and forth in time, in order to fill us in on Schmidt’s off-and-on relationships, especially his daughter’s marriage to Jon Riker, a man he distrusts, and his in-laws, whom he loathes.

Said in-laws believe it’s because of Schmidt’s discomfort with Jews, but Begley gives us reason to suspect it’s because Schmidt is a shrewder judge of (lack of) character than his daughter. Schmidt claims that he’s working on purging himself of his anti-Semitism, which indeed seems to be the case. Given the plot elements, there is plenty of opportunity for melodrama, which is generally avoided until a late death via deus ex machina that seems nearly as arbitrarily cruel as one of Larry McMurtry’s fictional killing sprees.

Alexander Payne’s adaptation of About Schmidt was well-acted and well-directed, but it wasn’t Begley’s Schmidt; by changing the locale from Wall Street to Kansas City, Payne lowered the financial and, I think, the emotional stakes. Similarly, Jack Nicholson acted the part well, but he was essentially miscast, and turned the character from an aloof banker with reserves of power and money to a standard-issue Midwest curmudgeon.

It’s not giving too much away to say that Schmidt survives – not a bad title for the fourth installment of this emotionally tangled man’s life. At the end of Schmidt Steps Back, Schmidt is in good shape for a 78-year-old man, and figures that he might have another 10 years left. He asks his doctor, who laughs and says it’s impossible to predict these things with a patient in such good health.

“Schmidt’s simultaneous translation was Don’t ask stupid questions, leave it to team death, they’ll figure it out.”

The larger question about Arthur Schmidt has always been, what sort of man is he, really? The question at the end of Schmidt Steps Back is more tactical, less philosophical: What’s he going to do with whatever time he has left?

And the question posed by the readers will likely be: How soon can Louis Begley write it?

'Color Light Abstraction' by Wynn Bullock

The color photographs of Wynn Bullock on view at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre look, variously, like streaking abstractions, stalactites in an underground cave, a solarized group of jazz musicians, a dancer caught in mid-jeté, the heaving birth pangs of the natural world, or set designs for a cutting- edge opera production.

In other words, they look like everything except what they actually are.

Bullock got his effects by setting fragments of glass on top of each other, with a light source below, then taking close-up shots of the resulting multicolored refractions.

The shots are giddy with discovery about light and color and their endless permutations, and they’re 180 degrees from the pantheistic black-and-white nature photographs with which Bullock made his reputation as a California photographer, often mentioned in the same breath with Edward Weston and Ansel Adams.

Bullock began his experiments with color in 1959, and they have a trippy ambience not far removed from the experimental work of Jordan Belson, which showed up in the climax of 2001: A Space Odyssey. But Bullock never printed or exhibited the shots – color print work was beyond the reach of his slender finances.

Instead, he contented himself by showing the slides to his family and friends. This is one of the first times the color shots have been exhibited, and they’re the most effusive contrast possible to his stark nature photographs that are also on exhibit.

Child in Forest, Bullock’s most famous image, is right out of the Garden of Eden, as Bullock’s young daughter lies face down on a forest floor amidst ivy, ferns and huge trees. It’s an image of primal innocence, of man at peace with his world. All of Bullock’s nature work shows the influence of his mentor Weston, particularly a sense of the erotic within the natural world.

The exhibit puts Bullock’s career in the broadest possible context, and it also serves as a example of the continual rediscoveries that broaden our understanding of what it means to be an artist.

While it has been around for years, its performances have mostly been in out-of-the-way venues at the G-Star School of the Arts or Palm Beach State College.

Now, in an effort to become more visible, the compact troupe is partnering with Delray Beach’s Old School Square Cultural Arts Center and producing a reduced-cast version of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, Much Ado About Nothing.

True to the title, the admission is nothing: free of charge. The show will run over the next two weekends, May 18-27, at Old School Square’s outdoor Entertainment Pavilion.

Although the play calls for a cast of 15 or more, Take Heed will be performing it with just six actors, who each handle two to four roles.

“It challenges the actors to be very clear in our character choices. So we focus on the physicalization and vocal qualities of the characters,” says artistic director Dave Hyland, who will be playing the romantic lead, smart-mouthed Benedick, and the comic relief of constable Dogberry. “It allows us to show some range in a single production.

“It’s streamlining Shakespeare. Matt Stabile, who we call our resident playwright, he’s really good at looking at these scripts and paring them down a little bit,” Hyland explains. “There’s some superfluous stuff in Shakespeare that people could live without if they had to.”

Besides, suggests Hyland, if Shakespeare lived during an economic recession, he would probably have written shorter plays with fewer characters.

The production is aimed at everyone from Shakespeare fans to the Shakespeare-wary to youngsters who have never heard of the guy. “We’ve scaled it back to be family-friendly,” assures Hyland. “We had a lot more bawdy stuff in the past productions.”

Cash-strapped Take Heed is taking a cue from Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival, the group that has long done outdoor plays in Jupiter each summer for free, while asking for donations from the audience. “If you enjoyed what you saw and feel like saying thank you that way, we’ll take it,” says Hyland.

Plaza’s Manilow Tribute . . . The world premiere of the revue I Am Music, a celebration of the song trunk of performer-composer Barry Manilow, currently at Manalapan’s Plaza Theatre, has been in development for years.

“It started out as snippets within cruise line shows and corporate events,” says the show’s director, Kevin Black, whose production company specializes in those niche markets.

“And I began to realize how popular this music was. I grew up with Barry Manilow’s music and always loved it, but most people think it’s just elevator music and kind of thumb their noses at it.”

Perhaps, but Black found that audiences always responded to Manilow’s songs – such as Mandy, Looks Like We Made It, I Write the Songs, Can’t Smile Without You - whenever he injected them into shows. “The singer-songwriter combo, there’s not many of them around. It’s kind of a dying art, in my opinion.”

I Am Music is “a revue with a very loose thread plot,” notes Black. Act One takes place in a theater where the lead character has called on all of his friends to work on a new show for him. “Through various gorgeous ballads, we get a little taste of past love affairs and where everyone’s been,” he explains. “By the end of Act One, we have rehearsed everything and then Act Two is the actual production.”

Never fear: the show’s grand finale is Copacabana.

“That’s the one the audience is waiting for. It’s our largest production within the show,” says Black.

“It’s a seven-minute production number that includes three full costume changes.”

Following I Am Music, Black will be back at the Plaza to direct the revue Don’t Rain on Our Parade!, a tribute to Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler and Carole King, June 7-17.

“The Plaza should be a large part of what I do in the future,” he says.

Bullying on stage…. coming on the heels of the movie Bully, Bob Carter’s Actor’s Workshop & Repertory Company brings back this weekend its popular production of columbinus, a docudrama about “the psychological warfare of alienation” in American high schools, a play inspired by the 1999 massacre at Columbine High in Colorado.

The production, which features advanced students from the Rep’s teen classes, plays tonight and Saturday, and again Thursday to Sunday, May 31-June 3, at the recently renamed Bhetty Waldron Theatre, 1009 N. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach. Tickets – $15 for adults, $5 for students – may be purchased at www.actorsrep.org. For more information, call (561) 301-2588.

If you go:

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Take Heed Theater Co., Old School Square Entertainment Pavilion, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach. May 18-27. Admission: Free, donations accepted. Call: (561) 722-3703.

I AM MUSIC, Plaza Theatre, 262 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan. Through May 27. Tickets: $42. Call: (561) 588-1820.

NEW YORK — A funny guy with a cane, a hat and an unforgettable mustache is heading to Broadway.

Producers announced Thursday that a new musical depicting the life of Charlie Chaplin will begin performances later this summer at the Barrymore Theatre. Previews begin Aug. 21 with an opening set for Sept. 10.

“Chaplin” has music and lyrics by Christopher Curtis, a pianist who wrote the theme song to the film “The Break” starring Martin Sheen, the theme song for the TV show “A Wedding Story” and has performed with such artists as Stevie Wonder. Curtis co-wrote the book with Thomas Meehan, a Tony Award winner who helped pen “The Producers,” ”Annie” and “Hairspray.”

Warren Carlyle, who directed and choreographed “Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway” and choreographed the revival of “Follies” this season, will direct and choreograph.

The musical debuted at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2010 under the name “Limelight” and won the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle’s Craig Noel Award for Best Musical.

Chaplin’s silent screen classics include “Modern Times,” ”The Great Dictator” and his Little Tramp character in “City Lights.”

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Online: http://www.chaplinbroadway.com

Anushka Spa lava rocks (Post file photo)

Art After Dark features An Evening for Mom from 5-9 p.m. today, featuring live jazz and complimentary makeup, hair and spa treatments.

The drummer is working on a memoir scheduled to be published in 2015 by St. Martin’s Press, the publisher announced Wednesday. The book, currently untitled, will include reflections on his “deep bond” with the late Jerry Garcia and memories of Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and the Allman Brothers.

Kreutzmann, who turned 66 this week, helped form the Dead in the mid-1960s along with Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKiernan. Since Garcia’s death in 1995, Kreutzmann has been touring with his own bands and playing with a wide variety of musicians, from Phish and Journey guitarist Neal Schon to Lesh and other former members of the Dead.

Literary agent Dianna Collier (Post photo by Richard Graulich)

Dianna Collier didn’t intend to become a literary agent. Few people do. It’s one of those professions that’s a product of evolution rather than decision. It just happens.

Many a year ago, in a kingdom called New York City, she was doing mergers and acquisitions when she met Oscar Collier, an agent who sublet space in her building. He was 20 years older, but that worked in his favor. They married, had a child, and Dianna wrote cookbooks and began working at the agency.

The marriage broke up after 10 years, but they stayed friendly, and when it was time for Oscar to retire, he asked whether Dianna would be interested in buying him out. By that time, she had moved to Florida to settle her mother’s estate, and hadn’t really thought about becoming a literary agent.

“I blithely said yes,” she recalls.

That was in 1994, and a lot of book proposals have moved through the Palm Beach Gardens office of Collier Associates ever since.

Collier’s husband, Fred Warner, constitutes the “associates.” At one time Warner was a professor at the University of New Mexico, as well as a client of hers. He edited several A.J. Liebling compilations, but then he retired and the nature of the relationship shifted. They married in 2004.

In a sense, moving to Florida was coming home for Collier; she grew up in New Jersey and Fort Lauderdale, and her father had a house in Palm Beach. She seems to be the only literary agent in Palm Beach County, although the vast majority of the authors and literary estates she represents – about 100 total – live elsewhere.

But then America has never lacked for people with literary ambitions.

As Warner puts it, “No sane person thinks they can get up on top of a house and fix a hole in the roof, but everyone thinks they can write a book.”

Traditionally, a good literary agent has to have an eye for talent, the ability to shape a writer’s work for the market, and the knowledge to place the book with the right publishing house. These days, the job is complicated by the fact that an agent also has to be on top of all the developments in self-publishing and e-books.

The Collier Agency has represented everyone from Sen. Barry Goldwater to James Webb, author of Fields of Fire and a former secretary of defense. The most valuable of the literary estates they handle is that of Harry Browne, an Ayn Rand-ish Libertarian who wrote You Can Profit From a Monetary Crisis, which has been selling steadily since the ’70s. Among her living clients, Collier is particularly high on Rochelle Alers, a young African-American writer of romantic paperbacks.

A connection between writer and agent is important.

“Dianna has the right combination of contacts and experience in the publishing world, and the personal sophistication to understand and help edit my work to strike the right tone,” says Miami author Robert Williamson, who writes a series about Brighton Shores, a barrier island with teasing similarities to Palm Beach. “She embodies the image of my characters – well-dressed, well-spoken, and intelligent.

“I’m writing about a place with a heavy veneer that shows cracks from time to time. Dianna knows the veneer but also is sufficiently distanced to be able to laugh.”

For her part, Collier says her job involves more than bringing a writer together with a publisher. It’s “to lead people with direction.”

What separates a good agent from a lesser one is the ability to shape a career. It is emphatically not just about getting the highest price for an individual book. It’s about placing the book with the right editor at the right house who can produce a book that will be noticed and who can raise the writer to the next level. That’s how careers are built.

Tom Colgan is the executive editor of Penguin Books: “I won’t say that she’s been around a long time, but I will say that she has an illustrious publishing pedigree. Suffice it to say that she has the background to know the market, know the houses, and know the editors. Were I to write a book tomorrow, she would be one of my first stops for representation.”

Editing has dwindled

The husband and wife have an interesting dynamic. Collier is vivacious and enthusiastic, with a European bent – she refers to people as “chaps” – while Warner is laconic and very American. His professorial background means that he has limited patience with bad writing. “If it’s lousy,” he says, “I give up on page four.”

Conversely, his wife says, “I feel sorry for a lot of these people. I keep reading.”

The publishing business, of course, is mutating at least as rapidly as any other form of media. The economic rough passage has tamped down print sales, even as cheaper digital sales have exploded.

“It’s harder to place a solid manuscript today than it would have been six or eight years ago,” says Collier. “The closing of Borders hurt, and nobody’s sure how to handle the digital end of the business. And I’ve found that editors aren’t doing as much editing as they used to. A manuscript has to really be ready to go before you send it out, because they don’t have the time to whip things into shape.

“The cleaner the work, the easier it is to move forward with it.”

Collier says that she’d like more African-American writers. “I tell them, ‘Don’t just write romances.’ For some reason, a lot of African-American women write romances. I meet women who work as prosecutors and they’re writing romance novels. Why?”

She goes to New York twice a year to meet editors and present projects, but the Internet has made the work of agents less expensive; even New York agents present manuscripts via email rather than sending over a manuscript via courier, which used to be the norm.

But some things never change, and Collier says that the bane of every agent’s existence is the nervous would-be writer who calls every other day.

“I have the same passion that I always had, but I also have other interests. We’re a small agency, and you have to get along with who you’re representing. Otherwise, life is too short.”

NEW YORK — Like bookends, Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada sit at opposite ends of a long, elegant table for their chat. There are crystal wineglasses and an ornate chandelier. They cover fashion, of course, but get into broader topics of politics and exotic places, feminism and popular culture.

The banter is lively, thoughtful and friendly, although sometimes they have very different opinions and aren’t afraid to voice them. Schiaparelli says the top of an outfit is the most important because in her day (the 1930s-’40s), when Cafe Society was all the rage, women were seen only from the waist up, sitting at a restaurant table. More than 50 years later, Prada put the emphasis on what’s below the belt because that’s what she found more dynamic and exciting.

“The skirt has always been one of my primary focuses. Everyone knows that you have to be very beautiful from the waist up, and less sophisticated from the waist down. But to me the waist up is more spiritual, more intellectual, while the waist down is more basic, more grounded. It’s about sex. It’s about making love. It’s about life,” says Prada. “It’s about giving birth.”

Counters Schiaparelli: “(When I began my career, I) did not know anything about dressmaking. (My) ignorance in this matter was supreme. Therefore my courage was without limit and blind. (My) designs (became) more and more daring. Up with the shoulders! Bring the bust back into its own, pad the shoulders and stop the ugly slouch! Raise the waist to its forgotten original place! Lengthen the skirt!”

Together, Schiaparelli and Prada make a compelling “Impossible Conversation,” which is what the curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art call the unusual exhibit at the Costume Institute that opens to the public Thursday.

Inspired by a Vanity Fair series from the 1930s that paired disparate celebrities, the exhibit unfolds in intimate short films directed by Baz Luhrmann that star Miuccia Prada herself and actress Judy Davis, portraying Schiaparelli, who died in 1973. The two women are accessorized by a deep display of archival outfits, ranging from an embellished skirt from Prada’s 2012-13 spring collection to the surrealist hats Schiaparelli made with Salvador Dali in 1938.

The presentation and subject matter couldn’t be more different from last year’s big success story, a retrospective of Alexander McQueen, the Met’s most popular fashion exhibit ever.

“It’s not at all like McQueen,” says curator-in-charge Harold Koda. “That was fantasy and not intrinsic to what people wear. This show has a much more subtle representation of artistry that infuses fashion, but it’s always subsumed under the reality of clothing that no matter how extreme, it can still be worn.”

Koda wonders whether the garments’ practicalities reflect the designers’ gender.

“I’m wondering if pragmatism is a quality that would come out of conversation of a lot of women designers; that somehow a woman needs to feel comfortable in her clothes,” he says.

He draws other parallels between the Italian-born women, including their interest in contemporary art, their provocative aesthetic and their broad definition of “beauty.”

“They presented things that most people might say were unattractive and made them be chic,” Koda says.

Part of the exhibit is categorized into looks that are “ugly chic,” think discordant combinations; “hard chic,” the military- and menswear-inspired silhouettes; and “naif chic,” drawing inspiration from the sweet styles of children and turning them tougher.

Both designers seem aware, though, that despite their reputations to like the unconventional, their customers tend to be straightforward.

“Curiously enough, in spite of (my) apparent craziness and love of fun and gags, (my) greatest fans were the ultra-smart and conservative women, wives of diplomats and bankers, millionaires and artists, who liked severe suits and plain black dresses,” Schiaparelli was quoted from her autobiography “Shocking Life.” (Fodder from the book dictated Schiaparelli’s half of her conversation.)

The rest of the show covers the classical body and exotic body.

Some of what visitors will see:

—Schiaparelli’s cape in black silk velvet with an embroidered image of the Greek god Apollo from 1938-39; a “Shoe” hat, crafted with a cone heel, from 1937-38; a black silk crepe de chine evening dress printed with matchsticks from 1935; a bolero in pink silk crepe embroidered with circus elephants and acrobats from 1938.

—Prada’s retro 1950s cruiser-car stilettos with a fin-shaped heel and red plastic taillight from 2012; a signature black nylon dress with zipper closure from 1995; a blue-and-gold matelasse Lurex cocktail dress from 2002; a white cotton-canvas top embroidered with monkeys, bananas and baroque scrolls paired with a skirt of pink-and-black striped cotton canvas from 2011.

Koda said these two were really the first and best choices for the conversation that he conceived with co-curator Andrew Bolton because there was a comparison and contrast for every look, detail and idea.

He allowed, however, “It could have been (Madeleine) Vionnet and (Azzedine) Alaia.”

“Impossible Conversations” opens Thursday and runs through Aug. 19.

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Online: http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2012/impossible-conversations/introduction

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Samantha Critchell tweets fashion at http://twitter.com/ap_fashion and is on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/.!/pages/Samantha-Critchell/142508605835740.

NEW YORK — Too few people were willing to consider taking a Leap of Faith.

Producers of the Broadway musical based on the 1992 film starring Steve Martin said Tuesday the show will close Sunday. It will have played 24 previews and 20 regular performances.

The musical had new songs by Alan Menken and stars Raul Esparza as a devious faith healer who is ready to scam residents of a down-and-out Kansas town. It got a Tony Award nomination for best musical but no other nods and some poor reviews.

Last week, it earned just $171,381 at the box office from a potential of $1,315,655.

Other shows stung by the lack of Tony attention have also announced they will close, including the now-shuttered Seminar and Magic/Bird, which closes this week.

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Online:

http://www.leapoffaithbroadway.com

Maurice Sendak (AP photo)

NEW YORK — Maurice Sendak, the children’s book author and illustrator who saw the sometimes-dark side of childhood in books like Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen, died early Tuesday. He was 83.

Longtime friend and caretaker Lynn Caponera said she was with him when Sendak died at a hospital in Danbury, Conn. She said he had a stroke on Friday.

Where the Wild Things Are earned Sendak a prestigious Caldecott Medal for the best children’s book of 1964 and became a hit movie in 2009. President Bill Clinton awarded Sendak a National Medal of the Arts in 1996 for his vast portfolio of work.

Sign online guestbook | Photos: 2012 notable deaths

Sendak didn’t limit his career to a safe and successful formula of conventional children’s books, though it was the pictures he did for wholesome works such as Ruth Krauss’ A Hole Is To Dig and Else Holmelund Minarik’s Little Bear that launched his career.

Where the Wild Things Are,” about a boy named Max who goes on a journey — sometimes a rampage — through his own imagination after he is sent to bed without supper, was quite controversial when it was published, and his quirky and borderline scary illustrations for E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Nutcracker did not have the sugar coating featured in other versions.

Sendak also created costumes for ballets and staged operas, including the Czech opera “Brundibar,” which he also put on paper with collaborator Pulitzer-winning playwright Tony Kushner in 2003.

He designed the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s “Nutcracker” production that later became a movie shown on television, and he served as producer of various animated TV series based on his illustrations, including “Seven Little Monsters,” “George and Martha” and “Little Bear.”

But despite his varied resume, Sendak accepted — and embraced — the label “kiddie-book author.”

“I write books as an old man, but in this country you have to be categorized, and I guess a little boy swimming in the nude in a bowl of milk (as in ‘In the Night Kitchen’) can’t be called an adult book,” he told The Associated Press in 2003.

“So I write books that seem more suitable for children, and that’s OK with me. They are a better audience and tougher critics. Kids tell you what they think, not what they think they should think.”

During that 2003 interview, Sendak alsoshe felt as if he were part of a dying breed of illustrators who approached their work as craftsmen. “I feel like a dinosaur. There are a few of us left. (We) worked so hard in the ‘50s and ‘60s but some have died and computers pushed others out.”

Sendak, who did his work in a studio at the Ridgefield, Conn., home he moved into in the early 1960s, never embraced high-tech toys. He did, however, have a collection of Mickey Mouse and other Walt Disney toys displayed throughout the house.

When director Spike Jonez made the movie version of “Where the Wild Things Are,” Sendak said he urged the director to remember his view that childhood isn’t all sweetness and light. And he was happy with the result.

“In plain terms, a child is a complicated creature who can drive you crazy” Sendak told the AP in 2009. “There’s a cruelty to childhood, there’s an anger. And I did not want to reduce Max to the trite image of the good little boy that you find in too many books.”

Sendak’s own life was clouded by the shadow of the Holocaust. He had said that the events of World War II were the root of his raw and honest artistic style.

Born in 1928 and raised in Brooklyn, Sendak said he remembered the tears shed by his Jewish-Polish immigrant parents as they’d get news of atrocities and the deaths of relatives and friends. “My childhood was about thinking about the kids over there (in Europe). My burden is living for those who didn’t,” he told the AP.

Sendak, his sister Natalie, and late brother Jack, were the last of the family on his father’s side since his other relatives didn’t move to the United States before the war. The only family member Sendak really knew on his mother’s side was his grandmother.

Sendak didn’t go to college and worked a string of odd jobs until he went to work at the famous toy store FAO Schwarz as a window dresser in 1948. But it was his childhood dream to be an illustrator and his break came in 1951 when he was commissioned to do the art for “Wonderful Farm” by Marcel Ayme.

By 1957 he was writing his own books.

Sendak received the international Hans Christian Andersen medal for illustration in 1970. In 1983 he won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the American Library Association.

But it was “Brundibar,” a folk tale about two children who need to earn enough money to buy milk for their sick mother that Sendak completed when he was 75, that he was most proud of. “This is the closest thing to a perfect child I’ve ever had.”

Sendak stayed away from the book-signing bandwagon that many other authors use for publicity; he said he couldn’t stand the thought of parents dragging children to wait on line for hours to see a little old man in thick glasses.

“Kids don’t know about best sellers,” he said. “They go for what they enjoy. They aren’t star chasers and they don’t suck up. It’s why I like them.”

It wasn’t his figure modeling, which was often as stiff as other figures in what was, after all, the Middle Ages. It was a combination of his colors, his perspectives, and an emotional intensity that was unparalleled for the period.

Abbeville has published Giotto, a second edition of Francesca Flores d’Arcais’s definitive book on the artist, which is accompanied by 300 sumptuous color photographs of his finest work.

I’ve never been to Assisi, so haven’t seen the Franciscan chapel that is said to contain some of his best art. But I have gazed in wonder at his frescoes in Santa Croce and other places in Florence, where he died in 1337, as well as at various museums.

He was a many-faceted talent; like Leonardo, he functioned as a jack-of-all-trades. Shortly before his death he was named master builder for the Duomo, and he also designed the adjacent bell tower, which I’ve happily climbed, pleased to be following in his footsteps, literally, if not metaphorically.

The book itself is invaluable for the closeup detail it offers of frescoes and other works that can only be publicly enjoyed at a distance – the better to examine the brushstrokes of a great artist gone for nearly eight centuries who still speaks to us.

In the Pipeline…

The Free Press will publish Paul Sullivan’s The One Per Cent: What I Learned From the Richest People in the World and What They Can Teach You. Sullivan writes the Wealth Matters column for the New York Times … Gallery Books, a Simon & Schuster imprint, will publish Sharron Kahn Luttrel’s Weekends With Daisy. Luttrell’s book is about her experiences raising a yellow Lab as a service dog in concert with Ryan, a man who has spent half his life in jail. The book has also been optioned for a movie.

Mike Browning’s Word of the Week…

phrontistery: a place for study or thought.