Five books: works of art in form as well as in content

Powells.com invited Gregory Maguire to "[r]ecommend five or more books on a single subject of personal interest or expertise." He came up with:

Five Books That Remind You That Individual Books Can Be Works of Art in Form as Well as in Content

Two books on the list:

The Once and Future King by T. H. White

I always mention this book as it, too, helped me conceive of Wicked. The fact that White was erudite and comical, moral and sensual, and that he poured all of himself into his retelling of a famous legend as if it had never been told before — well, that inspired me to try the same.

We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy by Maurice Sendak

The picture book has never been stronger than in this stirring and compassionate tale of two street urchins who rescue and raise a third. Check out the double spread of the older boys taking the little black kid down off the moon: it is Christian iconography come home to roost, a sermon as well as a jeremiad.

Read about more titles on Maguire's list.

Gregory Maguire is the bestselling author of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Lost, Mirror Mirror, and the Wicked Years series, which includes Wicked, Son of a Witch, and A Lion among Men.

Wicked, now a beloved classic, is the basis for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same name.

--Marshal Zeringue