Joe Rohde | Floating Mountains

The King's English is thrilled to welcome Walt Disney Imagineering Legend Joe Rohde to Salt Lake City to celebrate his new book, Floating Mountains: The Art of Imaging the Impossilble.

This is a ticketed event and will take place at The King's English Bookshop. Your ticket includes a signed copy of Floating Mountains. Copies of the book will be available to purchase at the event.

You may pre-order your signed copy to be picked up at the event by either calling the store at 801-484-9100 or ordering online. If you cannot make the event, signed copies may be ordered from our website. Please specify in the comments if you would like your copy personalized.

• Places in the signing line are reserved for those who purchase a copy from The King's English.

About the book:

Disney Legend and Imagineer Joe Rohde unlocks the secrets of creativity in this exploration of imagination, innovation, and life lessons for turning vision into reality. In this narrative, Imagineer, explorer, and Disney Legend Joe Rohde offers a master class in creativity on a world‑spanning journey to discover the origins of personal creativity, the power and potential of enterprising groups, and the parallels between collaboration and exploring the real world.

With lessons drawn from his celebrated career and life experiences—leading projects such as Disney’s Animal Kingdom, ventures into space tourism, field expeditions to far‑flung corners of the world, managing design teams, and working with corporate executives—Rohde dives into the nature, nurture, and practice of collaboration. He explains how to keep ideas true to their origins while allowing improvisation and accident to enhance, not derail, creative endeavors.

These are stories of inspiration and invention, challenge and transgression, success and failure, laced with humor, contemplation, poignancy, and even life‑threatening danger. Whether your interest in creativity is personal or professional, or you just want to peek behind the curtain of a renowned creative mind, Rohde’s lessons provide a guide for connecting your creative pursuits with others and the larger world.

About the author:

Joe Rohde is a Disney Legend and a veteran of 40 years with Walt Disney Imagineering. He led projects dealing with natural history, culture, and the environment, beginning with Disney’s Animal Kingdom and including Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa in Hawaii, and Villages Nature, an eco‑resort adjacent to Disneyland Paris. Now retired, he has consulted and collaborated on multiple projects, including work on the Virgin Galactic space tourism program, Jane Goodall’s project in Tanzania (Dr. Jane’s Dream), and continued work with Disney.

Rohde is a member of The Explorers Club. His expedition paintings, some displayed at the Club headquarters in Manhattan, were created under challenging field conditions and record settings, cultures, and events few may ever see. Many of these journeys are commemorated by a collection of earrings suspended from his greatly enlarged left ear lobe.

Rohde holds a B.A. in studio art from Occidental College and received the College’s 1999 Alumnus of the Year Award. He lives in the hills behind Santa Barbara, California, with his wife, fellow Imagineer and Disney author Melody Malmberg. They often visit Pasadena, California, to catch up with their sons, Kellan and Brandt.