Genre: Biography & Memoir
Length: 320 pages
Audiobook Length: 14 hours and 7 minutes
First Published: 2018
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Publisher’s Description
Fred Rogers (1928–2003) was an enormously influential figure in the history of television and in the lives of tens of millions of children. As the creator and star of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, he was a champion of compassion, equality, and kindness. Rogers was fiercely devoted to children and to taking their fears, concerns, and questions about the world seriously.
The Good Neighbor, the first full-length biography of Fred Rogers, tells the story of this utterly unique and enduring American icon. Drawing on original interviews, oral histories, and archival documents, Maxwell King traces Rogers’s personal, professional, and artistic life through decades of work, including a surprising decision to walk away from the show to make television for adults, only to return to the neighborhood with increasingly sophisticated episodes, written in collaboration with experts on childhood development. An engaging story, rich in detail, The Good Neighbor is the definitive portrait of a beloved figure, cherished by multiple generations.
Quotes from The Good Neighbor
You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are.
What a difference one person can make in the life of another.
You don’t set out to be rich and famous; you set out to be helpful.
His lesson is as simple and direct as Fred was: Human kindness will always make life better.
About Maxwell King
Maxwell King is the president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Foundation. Prior to that, he served as director of the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media and was the president of the Heinz Endowments for almost a decade. He is the author of The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers.