The Man behind the Magic: The Story of Walt Disney. This item is unavailable.The Man behind the Magic: The Story of Walt Disney

Follows the life of Walt Disney from his boyhood on a Missouri farm through his struggles as a young animator to his building of a motion picture and amusement park empire.

Why we wrote this book, and what we hope it will accomplish.
When we first started researching a biography of Walt Disney, we didn't know what we'd find. To be absolutely honest, part of the inspiration for us to write such a book was that it would give us an excuse to visit Disneyland and Walt Disney World over and over again. (We love Epcot.) Fortunately, what we discovered was an absolutely gripping story of a man who was never afraid to risk everything he had to do something better. He rode a real roller-coaster of a life; and the wonderful part is that he seemed to enjoy almost every dip and swerve of the ride. His family, notably his daughter Diane Disney Miller, were kind enough to open every door for us; and so we were able to portray sides of Walt (everyone used his first name!) that we couldn't find anywhere else. Our goal -- and we hope we've accomplished it -- was to create a biography that could be read and enjoyed by a young person as well as his or her parents. (Kind of like a really good Disney film.) Toward that goal, we did enough research to write the kind of 1,000 page biographies that look impressive on bookshelves; and then boiled it all down to a far shorter, more accessible version. We are delighted that our biography of Walt Disney, which first came out in hardcover about seven years ago, has now been published in paperback. We know we're more than a bit biased, but we think that if you're interested in animation, movies, theme parks -- but most important, the origins of one of America's creative geniuses -- you'll find The Man Behind the Magic worth your time.