Jim Henson
The Biography
(Sprache: Englisch)
Millions around the world know the name; millions more may know him by the countless iconic characters he created. Kermit the Frog. Bert and Ernie. Grover. Miss Piggy. Big Bird. The Muppets. All of these creations, and more, sprang from the fertile...
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Millions around the world know the name; millions more may know him by the countless iconic characters he created. Kermit the Frog. Bert and Ernie. Grover. Miss Piggy. Big Bird. The Muppets. All of these creations, and more, sprang from the fertile imagination of James Maury Henson, one of the most wonderfully innovative artists and entertainers of the twentieth century. In this first ever comprehensive biography of the legend, readers will hear the full story of his all-too-short life.
Klappentext zu „Jim Henson “
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • For the first time ever-a comprehensive biography of one of the twentieth century's most innovative creative artists: the incomparable, irreplaceable Jim HensonHe 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
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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.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BOOKPAGE
"Jim Henson vibrantly delves into the magnificent man and his Muppet methods: It's an absolute must-read!"-Neil Patrick Harris
"An exhaustive work that is never exhausting, a credit both to Jones's brisk style and to Henson's exceptional life."-The New York Times
"[A] sweeping portrait that is a mix of humor, mirth and poignancy."-Washington Independent Review of Books
"A meticulously researched tome chock-full of gems about the Muppets and the most thorough portrait of their creator ever crafted."-Associated Press
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.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BOOKPAGE
"Jim Henson vibrantly delves into the magnificent man and his Muppet methods: It's an absolute must-read!"-Neil Patrick Harris
"An exhaustive work that is never exhausting, a credit both to Jones's brisk style and to Henson's exceptional life."-The New York Times
"[A] sweeping portrait that is a mix of humor, mirth and poignancy."-Washington Independent Review of Books
"A meticulously researched tome chock-full of gems about the Muppets and the most thorough portrait of their creator ever crafted."-Associated Press
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Lese-Probe zu „Jim Henson “
Chapter OneThe Delta
1936 1949
Deer Creek winds casually, almost lazily, through the muggy lowlands in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. Its point of origin near the little town of Scott, in Bolivar County lies roughly ninety miles north of its terminal point at the Yazoo River three counties away. But Deer Creek takes its time getting there, looping and whorling back and forth in a two-hundred-mile-long amble, looking like a child s cursive scrawled across the map.
The town of Leland, Mississippi, straddles Deer Creek just as it twists into one of its first tight hairpin turns, about ten miles east of Greenville. Established before the Civil War, the sleepy settlement, sprawled out across several former plantations, had taken advantage of fertile soil and regular steamboat traffic on Deer Creek to become one of the wealthiest in the Delta region. In the 1880s came the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad, along with an influx of grocers and landlords and innkeepers but even with the growing merchant class and increasing gentrification, it was still land that mattered most in Leland, and in the Mississippi Delta. In 1904, then, the state legislature called for the creation of an agricultural experiment station in the Delta region, preferably at a point where experiments with the soil of the hills as well as the Delta can be made. That point turned out to be two hundred acres of land hugging Deer Creek, in the village of Stoneville, putting the state s new Delta Branch Experiment Station just north of and practically butted up against Leland. By 1918, the facility in Stoneville was housing researchers and their families from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, carrying out research on crops, soil, and animal production for the federal government; by 1930, its findings on animal feed and insect control were particularly welcome to planters and sharecroppers doing their best to scratch out a living from the swampy Delta soil during the Great
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Depression.
Paul Ransom Henson Jim Henson s father was neither a planter nor a sharecropper. Nor had he come to the Delta region to work a family farm during the Depression or satisfy a random pang of wanderlust. Paul Henson was a practical man, and he had come to Leland in 1931 with his new wife, Betty, for a practical reason: he had accepted a government post at the Delta Branch Experiment Station in Stoneville.
Paul Henson came from a line of similarly sturdy and clear-minded men who sought neither to offend nor agitate, a trait that Paul s famous son would inherit as well and, in fact, Jim Henson would always be very proud of his father s rugged, even-tempered Midwestern lineage. On one side of his father s family were the Dolton and Barnes lines good-natured, nonconfrontational, and accommodating almost to a fault while on the other were the Hensons practical, rugged, and imperturbable.
One of Jim s favorite family stories involved his great-great-grandfather, a strongly pro-Northern farmer named Richmond Dolton who, during the Civil War, had been living in a small Missouri town in which most of the residents were Southern sympathizers. Rather than offend the Confederate sensibilities of his neighbors, the amiable Dolton simply swapped his farm in a typically equitable and businesslike exchange for a similar one in a town in Kansas where the residents shared his own Union tendencies. The move would come to be particularly appreciated by Dolton s teenage daughter, Aramentia, though for reasons more prurient than political for it was here in Kansas that Aramentia Dolton met Ransom Aaron Barnes, a New Jersey native who had settled in the area. In 1869, she and Barnes were married; less than a year later, they would have a daughter, Effie Carrie Barnes Paul Henson&
Paul Ransom Henson Jim Henson s father was neither a planter nor a sharecropper. Nor had he come to the Delta region to work a family farm during the Depression or satisfy a random pang of wanderlust. Paul Henson was a practical man, and he had come to Leland in 1931 with his new wife, Betty, for a practical reason: he had accepted a government post at the Delta Branch Experiment Station in Stoneville.
Paul Henson came from a line of similarly sturdy and clear-minded men who sought neither to offend nor agitate, a trait that Paul s famous son would inherit as well and, in fact, Jim Henson would always be very proud of his father s rugged, even-tempered Midwestern lineage. On one side of his father s family were the Dolton and Barnes lines good-natured, nonconfrontational, and accommodating almost to a fault while on the other were the Hensons practical, rugged, and imperturbable.
One of Jim s favorite family stories involved his great-great-grandfather, a strongly pro-Northern farmer named Richmond Dolton who, during the Civil War, had been living in a small Missouri town in which most of the residents were Southern sympathizers. Rather than offend the Confederate sensibilities of his neighbors, the amiable Dolton simply swapped his farm in a typically equitable and businesslike exchange for a similar one in a town in Kansas where the residents shared his own Union tendencies. The move would come to be particularly appreciated by Dolton s teenage daughter, Aramentia, though for reasons more prurient than political for it was here in Kansas that Aramentia Dolton met Ransom Aaron Barnes, a New Jersey native who had settled in the area. In 1869, she and Barnes were married; less than a year later, they would have a daughter, Effie Carrie Barnes Paul Henson&
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Autoren-Porträt von Brian Jay Jones
Brian Jay Jones is an award-winning biographer and vice president of Biographers International Organization. Jones is a devoted member of the Jim Henson generation, having been two years old when Sesame Street premiered in 1969 and nine when The Muppet Show debuted in 1976. A former policy analyst and advisor in the U.S. Senate, Jones abandoned politics for the pen in 2008, with the publication of his award-winning biography, Washington Irving. He lives with his wife and dog in Virginia. His favorite Muppet is Rowlf (thanks for asking).
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Brian Jay Jones
- 2015, 608 Seiten, 18 Schwarz-Weiss-Abbildungen, Masse: 14,1 x 20,8 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: Penguin Random House
- ISBN-10: 0345526120
- ISBN-13: 9780345526120
- Erscheinungsdatum: 02.05.2016
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
Jim Henson vibrantly delves into the magnificent man and his Muppet methods: It s an absolute must-read! Neil Patrick Harris An exhaustive work that is never exhausting, a credit both to Jones s brisk style and to Henson s exceptional life . . . Brian Jay Jones tells the story of how Henson turned a quaint art form into an entertainment empire. The New York Times
[A] sweeping portrait that is a mix of humor, mirth and poignancy. Washington Independent Review of Books
Superlative . . . Jones draws upon new interviews with family and friends, reams of archival material, and Henson s own journals to provide a nuanced study of a preternaturally gifted, relentlessly driven artist. Los Angeles Review of Books
A meticulously researched tome chock-full of gems about the Muppets and the most thorough portrait of their creator ever crafted. Associated Press
Jim was one of my closest friends. And yet I found out things about him in Jim Henson that were new to me. Brian Jay Jones has captured the layers of Jim s genius and humanity, as well as the flaws that made Jim, like all of us, so delightfully imperfect. I thank Brian for giving Jim life again. This book has captured the spirit of Jim Henson. Frank Oz
Illuminating . . . As Jones expertly shows, Henson remained throughout his life an artist who was continuously in motion, conceiving, pitching, and managing multiple projects at once. The Atlantic
Consistently surprises . . . Highly readable and never long-winded (even at nearly 600 pages), Jim Henson joyously documents its subject s knack for combining old-fashioned puppetry with the world s newest entertainment medium to forge a kind of furry, felt-covered vaudeville. The Wall Street Journal
This is a biography that earns the label definitive.
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The Dallas Morning News
An insightful look at the gentle artist. Parade
Compulsively readable . . . evocative . . . Much has been written about Henson during his life and after but nothing with the same sense of authority and access as Jim Henson: The Biography. The A.V. Club
There are so many enjoyable aspects to this book that it s hard to know where to start. . . . Jim Henson: The Biography is a fantastic story of a brilliant life cut short, but it can also be read as a blueprint for following your bliss. BookPage
Jim Henson: The Biography feels comprehensive without bogging down; it will keep readers turning pages and enjoying every scene from Henson s life. Shelf Awareness
Sure to be savored for its exhaustive look at the late Muppet-master. Variety
Masterful . . . Jones continually shows that Henson left the world a better place, which serves as the book's theme. . . . [Jim Henson] can be enjoyed by readers of more than one generation. Kirkus Reviews
The story of the innovative puppeteer s life that Muppets completists have been waiting for . . . The section on Henson s death and funeral is one of the best parts of the book moving and elegiac. I dare you not to cry. Hollywood Reporter
[Brian Jay Jones s] lucid style, wide-angle perspective, and deep immersion in Henson s exuberantly innovative approach to puppets, television, and film make for a thoroughly compelling read. . . . With verve and insight, Jones illuminates the full scope of Henson s genius, phenomenal productivity, complex private life, zeal to do good, and astronomical influence. Booklist (starred review)
Brings to light a spirit of love, warmth, wit, and so much more. Library Journal
The book s most engrossing passages explore the extraordinary technical demands of creating naturalistic puppet spectacles in the age before computer graphics: performing a Muppet was an intricate, almost contortionistic dance of two puppeteers crammed into a single sleeve. . . . A fascinating making-of documentary. Publishers Weekly
I loved it. Brian Jay Jones vividly portrays Jim s journey, and also the intersecting journeys of his colleagues and friends. In spite of the fact that Jim and I worked together closely for many years, there were compartments of Jim s life that I hadn t known about before. I was completely involved and couldn t put the book down. A tremendous job. Dave Goelz, Muppet performer (Gonzo, Boober Fraggle, Bunsen Honeydew)
This is not only a superb biography for the Jim Henson and Muppet fans but also a sensitively written portrayal of a great and unique human being that will fascinate any and all readers. Fran Brill, actress, Sesame Street performer
Brian Jay Jones, in this marvelous tale of struggle and triumph, tells us how and why Jim Henson and his Muppets have rightly assumed their places in the pantheon of American creative geniuses alongside Walt Disney and Mickey, and Dr. Seuss and the Cat in the Hat. Paul Reid, co-author of The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill Defender of the Realm
Every Muppet fan has wondered who was behind the wide-mouthed, bug-eyed, furry creatures. Before now all we had was a credit line: Jim Henson. Now, with Brian Jay Jones s riveting Jim Henson, we have a nuanced portrait of the puppeteer part genius inspired by his Mississippi Delta roots and his Christian Science faith, part flawed human with tastes too rich in everything from his art and cars to his women that brings new understanding of and empathy for an icon of American popular culture. Larry Tye, author of Satchel and Superman
An insightful look at the gentle artist. Parade
Compulsively readable . . . evocative . . . Much has been written about Henson during his life and after but nothing with the same sense of authority and access as Jim Henson: The Biography. The A.V. Club
There are so many enjoyable aspects to this book that it s hard to know where to start. . . . Jim Henson: The Biography is a fantastic story of a brilliant life cut short, but it can also be read as a blueprint for following your bliss. BookPage
Jim Henson: The Biography feels comprehensive without bogging down; it will keep readers turning pages and enjoying every scene from Henson s life. Shelf Awareness
Sure to be savored for its exhaustive look at the late Muppet-master. Variety
Masterful . . . Jones continually shows that Henson left the world a better place, which serves as the book's theme. . . . [Jim Henson] can be enjoyed by readers of more than one generation. Kirkus Reviews
The story of the innovative puppeteer s life that Muppets completists have been waiting for . . . The section on Henson s death and funeral is one of the best parts of the book moving and elegiac. I dare you not to cry. Hollywood Reporter
[Brian Jay Jones s] lucid style, wide-angle perspective, and deep immersion in Henson s exuberantly innovative approach to puppets, television, and film make for a thoroughly compelling read. . . . With verve and insight, Jones illuminates the full scope of Henson s genius, phenomenal productivity, complex private life, zeal to do good, and astronomical influence. Booklist (starred review)
Brings to light a spirit of love, warmth, wit, and so much more. Library Journal
The book s most engrossing passages explore the extraordinary technical demands of creating naturalistic puppet spectacles in the age before computer graphics: performing a Muppet was an intricate, almost contortionistic dance of two puppeteers crammed into a single sleeve. . . . A fascinating making-of documentary. Publishers Weekly
I loved it. Brian Jay Jones vividly portrays Jim s journey, and also the intersecting journeys of his colleagues and friends. In spite of the fact that Jim and I worked together closely for many years, there were compartments of Jim s life that I hadn t known about before. I was completely involved and couldn t put the book down. A tremendous job. Dave Goelz, Muppet performer (Gonzo, Boober Fraggle, Bunsen Honeydew)
This is not only a superb biography for the Jim Henson and Muppet fans but also a sensitively written portrayal of a great and unique human being that will fascinate any and all readers. Fran Brill, actress, Sesame Street performer
Brian Jay Jones, in this marvelous tale of struggle and triumph, tells us how and why Jim Henson and his Muppets have rightly assumed their places in the pantheon of American creative geniuses alongside Walt Disney and Mickey, and Dr. Seuss and the Cat in the Hat. Paul Reid, co-author of The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill Defender of the Realm
Every Muppet fan has wondered who was behind the wide-mouthed, bug-eyed, furry creatures. Before now all we had was a credit line: Jim Henson. Now, with Brian Jay Jones s riveting Jim Henson, we have a nuanced portrait of the puppeteer part genius inspired by his Mississippi Delta roots and his Christian Science faith, part flawed human with tastes too rich in everything from his art and cars to his women that brings new understanding of and empathy for an icon of American popular culture. Larry Tye, author of Satchel and Superman
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