Winning a 2018 Goodreads Choice Award, this is the first full length biography on television icon Fred Rogers, written by a senior fellow at the Fred Rogers Center. Maxwell King tells the story from original interviews and oral histories, tracing Rogers's personal, professional, and creative life—including his surprising decision to walk away from his children's show to make television for adults, only to return to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood with increasingly complex topics, written in collaboration with experts on childhood development. King warmly conveys Rogers's gentleness, decency, and humanity, which still resonate with children and parents in our contentious age.

"The inimitable Mister Rogers becomes somehow even more enchanting.… King's book brims with anecdotes of intimate exchanges that highlight Rogers' kindness and grace."—Booklist

"A superb, thoughtful biography…. The enormous amount of thought, creative talent, and hard work that Rogers put into every aspect of the show becomes abundantly clear in this book, as do the lessons in empathy and kindness that he took so to heart."—David McCullough