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 he created: Kermit the Frog, Bert and
Ernie, Miss Piggy, Big Bird. The Muppets made Jim Henson
a household name, but they were only 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
Washington D.C., New York, and London, to the decade of
international celebrity that preceded his untimely death
at age fifty-three. Drawing on hundreds of hours of new
interviews with Jim Henson's family, friends, and
closest collaborators, as well as unprecedented access
to private family and company archives--including
never-before-seen interviews, business documents, and
Henson's private letters--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 or of
staging an elaborate, all-puppet Broadway show. 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 deal making
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, high-stakes gambling, 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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