Maurice Sendak, writer and illustrator of beloved children's picture books Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen, passed away today of complications stemming from a recent stroke. He was 83.

Both Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen were subjects of controversy upon release, with the latter often being censored for its depiction of a young boy without any clothes. To this day, it is still considered one of the American Library Association's most frequently challenged books.

Sendak, who first opened up about being gay in a 2008 New York Times interview, lived with the same partner — psychoanalyst Eugene Glynn — for 50 years. Dr. Glynn passed away in 2007.

Though he never officially came out to his parents, Sendak told The Guardian in 2011 that "if something had been said, I would have been thrown out of the house...and yet they met him and respected him. Strange."

Sendak published his most recent title just last year. Bumble-Ardy was the first book both written and illustrated by him since 1981's Outside Over There.

[photo via AP]