ABSTRACT
This chapter encompasses the earliest part of Winsor McCay's life, from his birth in Canada (including differing opinions about the actual year of his birth—though 1867 is the most likely date), and his childhood growing up in rural Spring Lake, Michigan in the late 1800s. Included is information on his parents and siblings, his namesake Zenas Gilbert Winsor, a local entrepreneur, and anecdotes about McCay's early ability at drawing with a technical accuracy in details due to a cognitive process he called “memory sketching.” His father's wish that Winsor attend a business school in Ypsilanti was disobeyed. Instead, McCay earned his first money from his art by drawing caricatures at a Detroit “dime museum,” which were a combination of vaudeville and a circus freak show. While in Ypsilanti, McCay also took private art lessons from Professor John Goodison (b. 1834), who proved to be a major influence on McCay's mastery of perspective in his drawings. Goodison also encouraged the gifted young artist to seek further art training in Chicago.
