Are Myklebust just sent me this great entry for the Disney history competition which will last until the end of March (you can win a copy of my art-book Disneyland Paris: From Sketch to Reality by entering it).

This item was sold in an auction that took place in June 2006. Its caption read:

[TLS signed “Walter E. Disney” on the final page, four pages, 8.5 x 11, Walt Disney Productions letterhead, June 7, 1950. A letter of agreement between Disney and writer Cameron Shipp, who was to write a serialized biography of Disney for the Saturday Evening Post. Countersigned by Shipp on the final page. In fine condition, with light toning, scattered mild wrinkling, marginal file holes at edges (one within loop of “y” in “Disney,” though not touching signature itself), and staple holes and paperclip impressions to top edges.]

It looks as if 6 years before the famous series of articles "by Diane Disney Miller" appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, Walt was already studying ways to let his biography be published.

Cameron Shipp was a journalist specializing in ghost-writting "autobiographies". He is the author of the "autobiography" of Mack Sennett and of Lionel Barrymore.

6 years after this letter was written, the Saturday Evening Post released a series of articles about the life of Walt Disney as told by his daughter Diane. This series was based on interviews conducted at the time by Pete Martin.

Jim Korkis was kind enough to detail the whole story:

[W. Thornton ("Pete") Martin (who was also a former Post editor) was a "celebrity friendly" writer who did a series of celebrity visits for the Saturday Evening Post in the Forties entitled "I Call On..." (eg. I Call On Bob Hope). Some of this writing was compiled and edited in a book "Hollywood Without Make-Up" in 1948. He would co-write celebrity biographies like "Have Tux, Will Travel" with Bob Hope and "Call Me Lucky" (first published in 1953) with Bing Crosby.

The Saturday Evening Post approached Walt Disney with the proposal to have him write (with the assistance of Pete Martin) his biography in serial form for the magazine. They offered Walt $150,000. Walt was already deeply involved in Disneyland but wanted to help his daughter Diane and her husband Ron get a house and had no money to give them because everything was tied up in his new theme park. So Walt made a counter-proposal that he would be interviewed but that Diane would be credited as the author so that she would receive the money.

Walt had always tried to promote his daughter Diane as a writer. He often brought samples of Diane's writing to the Studio for evaluation by his writing staff. The Post agreed to the arrangement but cut the offer in half to $75,000. Diane remembers spending the Summer by the pool at her dad's house where with planes flying overhead and bird noises and more, Walt spent a couple of days answering questions and remembering his life while Pete Martin recorded it all on reel-to-reel audio tape. Diane contributed some questions and was interviewed as well. Her younger sister Sharon was also involved briefly.

There were rumors at the time that a biography of Walt was in the works so supposedly, Walt decided he would undercut that other project by getting his own version out there first. Martin seemed like a good choice because he was an accessible writer who could put a positive spin on things. When he and Walt discussed the harsh corporal punishment that Walt's father often meted out on young Walt, Martin was able to steer the anecdote to the conclusion that this type of behavior was not unusual for the time but just the way parents including his own did their parenting back then.

Walt wasn't always accurate in terms of exact dates or chronology for certain incidents and that material was never cross-checked and corrected before the articles and the book were published.

Obviously, from this document submitted by Are, Walt had discussions with the Saturday Evening Post years before the series known to us Disney fans.

The "My Dad, Walt Disney" series of articles began in the Saturday Evening Post on November 17, 1956. The other seven parts appeared Nov. 24, 1956, Dec. 1, 1956, Dec. 8, 1956, Dec. 15, 1956, Dec. 22, 1956, Dec. 29, 1956 and the conclusion Jan. 5, 1957. These articles were later compiled/expanded/edited and appeared in a hardcover book in 1957 from Henry Holt entitled "The Story of Walt Disney". There were at least four foreign editions: Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. (I have the British and German editions and there are different photos or photos cropped differently in them.) There was also a Dell paperback released shortly afterwards.

In celebration of Disneyland's 50th anniversary, a special limited hardcover edition (with an index of corrections from Disney Archivist Dave Smith and a short introduction by Diane where she claims not to have written one word of the book) was released and sold at Disneyland.]

One last note about Walt and the Saturday Evening Post, this one by Michael Barrier:

[There was a two-part article about Walt's career published in the SEP in October-November 1953, but it was written by Jack Alexander, and it's not an as-told-to piece. I don't know of any connection with the Shipp project.]