On the same day that Jim started keeping his journal in the small, cloth red book, he also became the owner of a Great Dane puppy named Troy. There were always plenty of pets in the Henson household, and Troy was one of several dogs in Jim’s life over the years. Some of the Henson pets had patriotic names – there was a cat named George Washington and dogs named Yankee Doodle and Dixie. A dog called Loki was named for the mischievous Norse god. Clearly, Jim enjoyed the personalities of his dogs – he created numerous dog characters over the years starting with Rowlf and Baskerville in 1962. They were followed by Rufus, Rover Joe, Foo Foo, Barkley, Sprocket, Ambrosius, the Bunny Picnic dog, the Storyteller’s dog, Jo Jo, and, in his tour-de-doggy-force, all of the denizens of Jim’s 1989 show Dog City.

In June 1965, 28-year-old Jim Henson started a written log of his activities in what became known as “The Red Book.” He noted down what had happened up until that point (deemed “Ancient History”) and then recorded anything that he felt was worth recording as single line journal entries until the end of 1988.
Selected curated entries courtesy of The Jim Henson Company Archives.