LIFE Walt Disney: From Mickey to the Magic Kingdom (1st Impressions)

I had not seen anything about this book, the first I had heard of it is when someone picked it up for me at a local store and put it on my desk. The images caught their eye and they thought I would enjoy.  I read through and found the number of large reprints of pictures great to see. This book was released on April 15, 2106 and features a brief biography of Walt Disney and history of the Walt Disney Company accompanied by historical photos. LIFE Walt Disney: From Mickey to the Magic Kingdom is a soft cover book checking in at just under 100 pages,  produced by Time Inc using a fair number of Life Magazine images.

The book’s central focus is on Walt and his life, mostly with the company but there is the basic biography of his early years too. This was not that exhaustive and in my very quick first read it did not shed any new insight into the man or the company but it does give a general biography and if you have not done a lot of reading on Walt you may find some of the info and stories new.

For me the selling point is the photography. Almost all of the images are large reprints of historical shots from various sources over the years. Most are full page or a full spread and many in color. The narrative is secondary in the work and takes up a small percentage of the page, see the image below for an example page.

In conclusion if you are looking for some great Walt Disney archive photos in a decent size and/or a quick biography of Walt Disney I would consider adding LIFE Walt Disney: From Mickey to the Magic Kingdom to your library.