Jim Henson biography vs. "how to art career" books.

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Just read Brian Jay Jones' biography of Jim Henson. Totally enthralled by this book, I just found the whole thing so fascinating and couldn't put it down. In part I think that's because I've always been a huge admirer of Henson's work, but along the way of reading it, I noticed something else: I've also been reading a lot of "How to launch an art career" type books, which I've found to be a real boredom-inducing slog to get through. Most them are written a very dry, textbook-like format, and the information is very general, or rather obvious. You have to sift through all kinds of filler to get to anything useful. Now the Henson bio on the other hand was just overflowing with useful knowledge for aspiring creative types. I think that's the value of having a real world example. You get to see how his habits and outlook shaped his art, and also (this part is crucial) seeing actual scenarios where he responded to real world problems is just absolutely invaluable. Here we see him negotiating with television networks, being a stickler for high standards of integrity when it comes to merchandising/commercializing his creations, or dealing with the growing pains of his business buckling under the strain of it's own phenomenal success (a lot of interdepartmental feuding broke out when Henson Associates, which began as a New York-centric organization, spawned a London-based wing). I found the accounts of the the-artist-in-the-world, navigating these crises while shepherding his creative vision into being, to be many times or useful (and loaded with nuggets of wisdom) than an entire stack of "so you want to be an artist without starving to death" books. Anyhow, I thought this biography was well written and a joy to read. Much of Henson's career is little-known (he was working in television and film for about two decades before Sesame Street or the Muppet Show made him world famous) so I learned a lot about his earlier works from this. The author also wrote a biography of George Lucas, another of course massively influential filmmaker, I'm going to have to put that on my upcoming reading list as well. I would recommend the Henson biography to anyone who enjoys the Muppets or is curious about how successful artists operate.