Publisher's Synopsis
"Sutton-Smith embraced play more fully than any other contemporary thinker and changed the way generations will imagine the topic. A profoundly important theorist of play, he was also a diligent observer of how children actually play, and he collected their songs, stories, rhymes, jokes, and game rules from across the world. Most of all, he was a strong-minded advocate for allowing children to play freely, arguing that they have a right to interact on their own terms away from controlling impulses of adults. By training an educational psychologist, by inclination a folklorist, and by any reckoning a great scholar, Sutton-Smith in the last moments of his career speaks his mind on the true nature and real importance of this many-faceted phenomenon. He argues that play is more than a game for the young or a pastime for adults or a recreation for sports enthusiasts. Instead, it allows us to display our most basic existential challenges in c
