Hmmm... my favorite Disney books... got a couple of hours?
I don't have a lot of books on my shelf specifically about Walt, but there are some books out there that I've found interesting. I just finished the Neil Gabler biography "Walt Disney and the Triumph of the American Imagination" a couple of months ago; it's really detailed and you may not necessarily agree with all of his conclusions, but it's a fascinating book. Just be prepared to devote a LOT of time to it - it's about 800 pages plus!
The Bob Thomas books, "Walt Disney: An American Original" and "Building A Company" (which was Tomas' biography of Roy) are both fascinating; if you have the time, consider reading Bob's book on Walt first, then follow up with the book on Roy. I read "Building A Company" first; you gain a real appreciation for everything Roy did to make what Walt wanted to do financially possible.
I also enjoyed Steven Watts' "The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life"; the book concentrates more on the people around Walt and how Disney's work influenced American culture and vice versa.
Another book I'd recommend would be "Remembering Walt" by Howard and Amy Booth Green; this book was fascinating to me because it's a collection of recollections of people who worked with Walt. The recollections don't always paint a picture that is consistent with our image of "Uncle Walt" from TV - he could be very difficult to deal with and a hard taskmaster as well as inspiring and brilliant - but you can see that the folks around him were very devoted to Walt and what he created in spite of his flaws.
While the next two books I'm going to mention are more about aspects of Walt then general biographies, they're fascinating in their own right, because they provide some insight into the passions of Walt that created the parks. First off, there's "Walt Disney's Railroad Story" by Michael Broggie. The first section of the book goes into the history of Walt's love of trains and how that love of trains inspired him to create his first backyard railroad, the Carolwood Pacific, and
Disneyland; the second section talks about the railroads found at all the Disney theme parks and resorts. Some folks may find the technical discussions about aspects of railroads and railroading to be a bit much, but it's an interesting book overall.
The scond book I'd like to mention is "Walt Disney and the Quest for Community" by Steve Mannheim. This book deals with Walt and his ideas about EPCOT - not the theme park, but the city that was his reason for coming to Florida to begin with. This book's probably intended more for an academic audience than a general audience, but it's interesting to read about Walt's ideas for the city of the future and how the Imagineers and the other folks around him tried to flesh out those ideas into practical concepts. It also gives you a feel for how much Walt left unsolved as far how his vision would be made real; after you read this book, you can't help but wonder how much more likely EPCOT the city would have been if he had lived a few years longer, or whether even Walt could have inspired the people around him to surmount the challenges he faced with EPCOT.
I'll get to books about WDI that are my favorites in my next post...