Ballantine Books
October 2013
On Sale: September 24, 2013
600 pages ISBN: 0345526112 EAN: 9780345526113 Kindle: B00C4BA5A8 Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
For the first time ever—a comprehensive biography of one
of the twentieth century’s most innovative creative artists:
the incomparable, irreplaceable Jim Henson
He was a gentle dreamer whose genial bearded
visage was recognized around the world, but most people got
to know him only through the iconic characters born of his
fertile imagination: Kermit the Frog, Bert and Ernie, Miss
Piggy, Big Bird. The Muppets made Jim Henson a household
name, but they were just part of his remarkable story.
This extraordinary biography—written with the
generous cooperation of the Henson family—covers the full
arc of Henson’s all-too-brief life: from his childhood in
Leland, Mississippi, through the years of burgeoning fame in
America, to the decade of international celebrity that
preceded his untimely death at age fifty-three. Drawing on
hundreds of hours of new interviews with Henson's family,
friends, and closest collaborators, as well as unprecedented
access to private family and company archives, Brian Jay
Jones explores the creation of the Muppets, Henson’s
contributions to Sesame Street and Saturday Night
Live, and his nearly ten-year campaign to bring The
Muppet Show to television. Jones provides the
imaginative context for Henson’s non-Muppet projects,
including the richly imagined worlds of The Dark Crystal
and Labyrinth—as well as fascinating misfires
like Henson’s dream of opening an inflatable psychedelic
nightclub.
An uncommonly intimate portrait,
Jim Henson captures all the facets of this American
original: the master craftsman who revolutionized the
presentation of puppets on television, the savvy businessman
whose dealmaking prowess won him a reputation as “the new
Walt Disney,” and the creative team leader whose
collaborative ethos earned him the undying loyalty of
everyone who worked for him. Here also is insight into
Henson’s intensely private personal life: his Christian
Science upbringing, his love of fast cars and expensive art,
and his weakness for women. Though an optimist by nature,
Henson was haunted by the notion that he would not have time
to do all the things he wanted to do in life—a fear that his
heartbreaking final hours would prove all too well
founded.
An up-close look at the charmed life
of a legend, Jim Henson gives the full measure to a
man whose joyful genius transcended age, language,
geography, and culture—and continues to beguile audiences
worldwide.
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