Maira Kalman

March27, 2009
Posted by Jay Livingston

My introcution to Maira Kalman was via Max, a dog and the protagonist of her first (?) book, Max Makes a Million.

Call me Max.
Max the dreamer.
Max the poet.
Max the dog.

My dream is to live in Paris.
To live in Paris and be a poet.

Then came Ooh-La-La (Max in Love) and Max in Hollywood, Baby. Even if you don’t have the excuse of a kid to read these to, you should read them.

At the Children’s Museum on 83rd Street I saw a wonderful exhibit or installation or whatever you call it based on her work.

She is best known, I expect, for the NewYorkistan map, a cover for the New Yorker magazine in December of 2001 – three months after 9/11, two months after the US invasion of Afghanistan, when we were struggling with the odd names of all those odd places.

Since January, she’s been doing a weekly piece for the New York Times. This week’s (“So Moved”) is about democracy in America, but you can’t write and draw about democracy in America without a hat tip to Democracy in America.

(Click on the image for a version large enough that you can read the print.)