I spent part of the Xmas break editing a long (and fascinating) interview of Imagineer Roger Broggie, which will be released in Walt's People - Volume 25. In that interview, Roger mentions that when he retired he was replaced as the head of MAPO by astronaut Gordon Cooper.

I thought some of you might want to know that last year Cooper released his autobiography, which seems to contain a few pages about his Disney career...

 This is a new Italian art book which I will soon buy on Amazon.it

With the holidays right around the corner, I would like to remind all of you that there are still a few copies available of the newly released monograph by JB Kaufman about The Making of Walt Disney's Fun and Fancy Free.  This is a great hard-cover, full-color, 148-page long, heavily-illustrated (more than 150 illustrations) publication. All of you who are interested in Disney history will love it.

We do not know if this monograph will be re-printed so I would encourage to get your copy now.

(For our European members: The French distributor should have copies available by mid to late January.)

Volume 1 and Volume 2 of Bill Kroyer and Tom Sito's On Animation: The Director's Perspective look like two excellent books that I will definitely have to buy. I wish they were a little cheaper, though...

I just got a copy of the new Art of Frozen II book and it is pure delight. I simply cannot get enough of those beautiful concept sketches and character designs.

It took a little longer than expected but I am glad to announce that Walt's People - Volume 23 has just been released!

Here is the table of contents:

Foreword: Tom Sito
The Letters of Peter Adby
Joe Collura: Sterling Holloway - A Way with Words
Edward Summer: Sterling Holloway
EMC West: Tyrus Wong
Family Circle magazine: Ken Anderson and Woolie Reitherman
Edward Summer: Woolie Reitherman
Christopher Finch and Linda Rosenkrantz: Woolie Reitherman
Michael Barrier: Les Novros, Bill Hurtz, and Paul Julian
Didier Ghez: Rudy Cataldi
Michael Broggie: Bob Harpur
Jack Hannah
Jay Horan: Joe Potter
Didier Ghez: Jeff Burke

I just received a copy of Don Iwerks' book about his father Ub Iwerks, which will soon be released by Disney Editions.

This book meets and exceeds expectations. from cover to cover it is full of new information and of never-seen-before illustrations. Its in-depth exploration of Ub's technological inventions, an almost virgin field of research until now, is a breath of historical fresh air.

This book is clearly at the very top of my list of "must haves" for 2019.

By the way: between Leslie Iwerks and her outstanding 6-part documentary about Imagineering on Disney+ and now Don Iwerks and his book about Ub, what an impressively talented family! 

Spectacular auction coming up at Heritage Auctions this week.

Looking forward to this upcoming book (and to the movie itself).

As some of you know, I am in the process of researching and writing a monograph titled The Origins of Walt Disney's True-Life Adventures (1938 - 1948). 

While doing this, I am exploring a lot of hidden Disney history nooks and crannies, including the research trip to Maine that Disney artist Maurice "Jake" Day and his friend Lester Hall organized in August 1938.

And while researching that trip I discovered the official Jake Day website which sells some of his non-Disney artwork. I have a feeling that some of you may like to know that it exists. 

We are nearing the end of the year and the "must-have" Disney history books of 2019 are becoming obvious. I will update this list in 6 weeks, but here is my initial selection. It is a highly subjective selection and I am focusing only on Disney history books (art books about Disney which are not strictly history-focused are not included for example, nor are books that pretend to be non-fiction and are really historical fiction). I hope you will enjoy this list.

Merritt, Chris; Docter, Pete: Marc Davis In His Own Words: Imagineering the Disney Theme Parks published by Disney Editions; 2019.

Kaufman, J.B.: The Making of Walt Disney's Fun and Fancy Free published by Hyperion Historical Alliance Press; 2019.

Ghez, Didier: They Drew As They Pleased book series - The Hidden Art of Disney's Early Renaissance published by Chronicle Books; 2019.

Ghez, Didier: Walt's People - Volume 22 published by Theme Park Press; 2019.

Kaufman, JB; Hollifield, Jim (editors): 2019 Hyperion Historical Alliance Annual published by Hyperion Historical Alliance Press; 2019.

Pierce, Todd James: The Life and Times of Ward Kimball: Maverick of Disney Animation published by University Press of Mississippi; 2019.

Johnson, Mindy: Pencils, Pens & Brushes: A Great Girls' Guide to Disney Animation published by Disney Press; 2019.

Iger, Robert: The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company published by Random House; 2019.

Rafferty, Kevin: Magic Journey: My Fantastical Walt Disney Imagineering Career published by Disney Editions; 2019.

Sklar, Marty: Travels with Figment: On the Road in Search of Disney Dreams published by Disney Editions; 2019.

Koenig, David: The 55ers - The Pioneers Who Settled Disneyland published by Bonaventure Press; 2019.

Gurr, Bob: Legendary Imagineer: Life and Times - Disney and Beyond published by Bob Gurr; 2019.

Korkis, Jim: Disney Never Lands: Things Disney Never Made published by Theme Park Press; 2019. (And all of the other books released by Jim this year).

Great photos of Walt and Lillian visiting Colonial Williamsburg on October 14, 1944. If I am not mistaken the second person from the right is Studio executive Carl Nater. Can someone confirm this?

Thanks to François Monferran‎ for his heads up about this great video of Walt visiting the Swiss national exposition of 1964.

Walt's People - Volume 23 - An Update

You may have noticed that the release of Walt's People - Volume 23 is a little bit late. Some good news, though: I will deliver the final manuscript to the publisher on Monday and I am hoping that the book will be released by mid-December at the latest. Here is what it will contain:

Foreword: Tom Sito
The Letters of Peter Adby
Joe Collura: Sterling Holloway - A Way with Words
Edward Summer: Sterling Holloway
EMC West: Tyrus Wong
Family Circle magazine: Ken Anderson and Woolie Reitherman
Edward Summer: Woolie Reitherman
Christopher Finch and Linda Rosenkrantz: Woolie Reitherman
Michael Barrier: Les Novros, Bill Hurtz, and Paul Julian
Didier Ghez: Rudy Cataldi
Michael Broggie: Bob Harpur
Jack Hannah
Jay Horan: Joe Potter
Didier Ghez: Jeff Burke

I have been working in recent days on an in-depth essay about, Grace Huntington, the second woman to join Disney's Story Department. I am extremely proud of that essay which covers a lot of new ground and which will be released next year in the second volume of the Hyperion Historical Alliance Annual.

For those of you who have yet to pick up the first HHA Annual, it is still available on Amazon and contains some really in-depth essays exploring a large variety of fascinating Disney-history-related topics. From my standpoint (I am not the most objective observer, of course) this is Disney history at its best.

Speaking of which: you will notice that I try to review or promote all the relevant Disney history books that are released. You will also notice, from time to time, that I specifically avoid mentioning a few books. Usually when I ignore them it means that they do not meet bare minimum of quality standards when it comes to Disney history, This is especially the case for books that present themselves as "non-fiction" and end up being "historical fiction."

Thankfully there are not too many of those and there are enough well-researched, reliable new Disney history books that I still have my work cut-out for me for years to come.

This website contains some marvelous documents. Thanks to Michael Goldberg for the heads up!

I thought I had finally caught up on all the great Italian books about Disney comics that have been released in recent years, when I realized that three more have been published when I wasn't looking. Oh well...

This newly released book by Les Clark's daughter could be really interesting. I am especially looking forward to the illustrations and the personal insights about Les that only Miri can share.

As the holidays are getting closer, please remember that the great hard-cover, full-color, 148-page long, heavily-illustrated (more than 150 illustrations) monograph about The Making of Walt Disney's Fun and Fancy Free by J.B. Kaufman is now available for purchase at this link and on Amazon.

For those of you who live in Europe, it should become available soon via a French distributor in order to lower the shipping costs (more about this soon).

The new Vault of Walt volume has just been released.

The Disney Books Network has just been updated.

The fifth volume of They Drew as They Pleased is being sold at a very great 36% discount on Amazon at the moment. Time to pick it up if you are looking forward to get it now or for the holidays.

There have been so many good books released about Disney history in recent months that I started re-reading my recent reviews a few days ago to make sure than I did not short-change some of them by reviewing them too quickly.

While doing so, I realized that I had made at least one obvious mistake in one of those reviews. I have now been able to read in detail The Art of Disney Costuming and, while I do regret that it does not feature more costumes and historical info about Walt's era (which I suspect comes from the fact that those costumes did not survive), I really, really enjoyed the absolutely gorgeous photographs of the new costumes as well as the great stories and anecdotes that discuss their creation!

If you are a fan of the new live-action Disney features or if you have friends who are, this is definitely a "must-have" for you or a great gift for your friends.

And there is even a double-page about one of The Black Hole costumes, which truly made my day!

I have now removed my original review which does not reflect how I truly feel about this beautiful book.

Someone just found our full 2019 D23 Expo presentation on YouTube. Glad to share.

I just received a copy of this upcoming book.

If you love Disney musicals you will love it. It is beautifully illustrated and well-written. Not a lot is new in it. It is just a very enjoyable, very well produced book that makes for a great gift for the holidays.

Did anyone of you read this recently released Italian book? Is it worth picking up?

My friend David Bossert's upcoming book just showed up for pre-order on Amazon: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Visual Companion.

My good friend David Peake just spotted online those interesting book covers for three books to come. Interesting!

I can't wait to finally read this book which was released yesterday.

I just stumbled upon this book on Amazon. For those of you who are fans of Don Rosa's Disney comics and who wonder about Don Rosa, the man and the artist, this book may be for you. Apparently it is more about his house, hobbies and life than about his work, though. Be warned.

This just in.

Walt's People - Volume 23 should be released around the end of October. Here are the caricatures that will appear on the cover, courtesy of John Musker.

I am back from a quick European business trip and I have now received a copy of this new book for kids. I am really enjoying it. The author did his homework and I find the content to be almost 100% accurate (I have one minor doubt on one specific page, but it is a really small one).

Then again, who would not love a book for kids that features not just Walt but also Marty Sklar, Rolly Crump and Mary Blair among others.

A very nice gift for the holidays.

The publisher Penguin Random House contacted me a few days ago to make me aware of the new book for kids, I Am Walt Disney. The other books in the series are a pure delight so I have a feeling this one may be too.

I will post a review and a few interior pages as soon as I get it next week. In the meantime, here is the blurb I got from the publisher:

[We are pleased to announce "I am Walt Disney," the 18th picture book in the New York Times bestselling "Ordinary People Change the World" series of biographies about heroes. This book, by best-selling author Brad Meltzer and illustrator Christopher Eliopoulos, tells the story of Walt Disney, who made dreams come true. This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great--the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of one of America's icons in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers and that always includes the hero's childhood influences. This volume features Walt Disney, who makes dreams come true for himself and countless kids around the world.]

Yes, I am actually looking forward to this book...

The second edition of Becky Cline's book The Walt Disney Studios - A Lot to Remember has just been released. It is a great book and, if you did not pick up the first edition (which was available only for a very short time two years ago), you should definitely grab this second edition.

Would one of you happen to own a copy of this rare 1943 booklet by Goodyear? I am conducting research on Disney's early educational projects and would love to get high resolution scans of this document. Please email me at didier.ghez@gmail.com if you can help.

I have now received a physical copy of Jim Korki's new book. This is really the delightful read I was expecting. Way to go Jim!

Quick reminder about the great auction by Van Eaton Galleries coming up this weekend. Some real treasures in there.

I have always been interested in the historical events which inspired Disney's musical Newsies. Which is why I had the pleasure of picking up this excellent new book by Ashley Varela, recently released by Theme Park Press. Some of you will be interested to know that it exists.

Now that D23 Expo is over, I am finally allowed to write about the Disney history book of the century, Marc Davis In His Own Words: Imagineering the Disney Theme Parks by Chris Merritt and Pete Docter.



In short: this book is mind-blowing. It is the best Disney history art book I have ever seen. It is 750-pages long, 95% of which are focused on Marc Davis' contributions to WED (now Walt Disney Imagineering). In his research, Chris has left no stone un-turned and has focused, on purpose, on artwork that has never been seen or has rarely been seen before. He also covers all of the abandoned projects that Marc tackled.


Spectacular does not even start to describe this book. This is the definition of a "must have" from my standpoint. How will anyone be able to top what has been achieved here is beyond me.

Run to get this book.