A Mickey Mouse Reader
by Edited by Garry Apgar
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Pub Date Oct 07 2014 | Archive Date Feb 16 2016
Description
With Contributions by Walter Benjamin, Lillian Disney, Walt Disney, E.M. Forster, Stephen Jay Gould, M. Thomas Inge, Jim Korkis, Anna Quindlen, Diego Rivera, Gilbert Seldes, Maurice Sendak, John Updike, Irving Wallace, Cholly Wood
Ranging from the playful, to the fact-filled, and to the thoughtful, this collection tracks the fortunes of Walt Disney’s flagship character. From the first full-fledged review of his screen debut in November 1928 to the present day, Mickey Mouse has won millions of fans and charmed even the harshest of critics. Almost half of the eighty-one texts in A Mickey Mouse Reader document the Mouse’s rise to glory from that first cartoon, Steamboat Willie, through his seventh year when his first color animation, The Band Concert, was released. They include two important early critiques, one by the American culture critic Gilbert Seldes and one by the famed English novelist E. M. Forster.
Articles and essays chronicle the continued rise of Mickey Mouse to the rank of true icon. He remains arguably the most vivid graphic expression to date of key traits of the American character—pluck, cheerfulness, innocence, energy, and fidelity to family and friends. Among press reports in the book is one from June 1944 that puts to rest the urban legend that “Mickey Mouse” was a password or code word on D-Day. It was, however, the password for a major pre-invasion briefing.
Other items illuminate the origins of “Mickey Mouse” as a term for things deemed petty or unsophisticated. One piece explains how Walt and brother Roy Disney, almost single-handedly, invented the strategy of corporate synergy by tagging sales of Mickey Mouse toys and goods to the release of Mickey’s latest cartoons shorts. In two especially interesting essays, Maurice Sendak and John Updike look back over the years and give their personal reflections on the character they loved as boys growing up in the 1930s.
Garry Apgar, Bridgeport, Connecticut, is an art historian and former cartoonist and journalist. He is the author of Mickey Mouse: Emblem of the American Spirit and coauthor of The Newspaper in Art.
Advance Praise
“My dad referred to Mickey Mouse as ‘a little creature dedicated to the purposes of laughter.’ He also advised us to remember that ‘It all started with a mouse’... the empire that resulted that bears his name. Mickey means different things to different people, and Garry Apgar has compiled a fascinating selection of essays on The Mouse by some very important people. On Mickey's behalf, I am very impressed.”
–Diane Disney Miller, president of the Walt Disney Family Foundation and co-founder of The Walt Disney Family Museum
“A Mickey Mouse Reader is a seminal book which will delight both casual Mickey Mouse enthusiasts and Disney history scholars. Thanks to Garry Apgar, no serious research about Mickey will ever be undertaken from this day forward without first absorbing the fascinating content of this delightful book.”
–Didier Ghez, author of Disney’s Grand Tour and editor of the Walt’s People book series.
“A Mickey Mouse Reader is a book that commands attention for many reasons, but not least because it is a continually surprising pleasure to read. There is in the book much that is worth reading for its own sake, and not just as a record of how critical and public sentiment have changed in the more than three-quarters of a century since Mickey’s debut. Apgar’s own commentary gives the book a reassuring “spine” of informed judgment; that is, his authorial persona—especially his sophistication as a scholar in the visual arts—encourages the reader to accept his choices of what to include in the book. He has taken seriously the job of choosing the contents and as a result has come up with many fascinating items, including some originally published in other languages, that a less industrious compiler would have missed.”
–Michael Barrier, author of The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney (University of California Press).
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Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781628461039 |
| PRICE | $35.00 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Clarissa D, Reviewer
What a delightful book!
This is a must have for any Disney fan, for certain. People tease me that I'm just refusing to grow up by always showing my love for it, but I like what I like. This book? I like. To begin, I must confess that I am a Donald Duck fan. However, I love Mickey Mouse and getting to read all of these anecdotes and stories and such made me so happy. There are so many from varying people related to Disney and then there's some surprising ones.
I am one happy Disney fan. My only complaint would be that the e-reader version was a little messy, but I got through it.
Melissa M, Reviewer
I have to say that the e-reader format was a little confusing at first, but once I got into the actual meat and potatoes of the book I loved it!
I am a huge Disney fan, and have actually read a lot of books on the subject. I have to say that this book in particular really impressed me. There were so many new facts and stories that I have never heard before. This is a must read for all Disney and Mickey Mouse fans!
Kel M, Media/Journalist
The mouse with the most
A Mickey Mouse Reader, edited by Gary Apgar (University Press of Mississippi, $35).
Everybody from psychoanalyst C. G. Jung to evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould weighs in on the mouse that roared in A Mickey Mouse Reader, edited by Gary Apgar. While the early pieces included get a bit repetitive, for the most part Apgar has gathered a wide—and representative—selection of writings about Mickey.
These include critiques and paeans to his artistic value, an essay by E.M. Forster on his relationship with Minnie, the economics of the Disney juggernaut and the economics displayed by Mickey himself, as he helped build and expand the concept of childhood consumerism … well, the list goes on.
At more than 400 pages, it’s not quite comprehensive, but it’s close, and it answers that age-old question: When and why did we start describing unworthy things as “Mickey Mouse crap”? It’s all in here.
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