Editing Gary Gygax (section)

== Early life and inspiration ==
Gygax was born in Chicago, the son of Almina Emelie "Posey" Burdick<ref name="witwer">{{cite book |title=Empire of the Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons |last=Witwer |first=Michael |date=2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-63286-279-2 |location=New York |oclc=908838677}}</ref>{{rp|15}} and [[Swiss Americans|Swiss]] immigrant and former [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra]] violinist Ernst Gygax.<ref name="TheTimesObit">{{cite news |date = March 6, 2008| title = Gary Gygax| work = [[The Times]] |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3491541.ece| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080930172316/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3491541.ece |url-status = dead |archive-date = September 30, 2008 |access-date = October 7, 2008 |location=London |first=Sadie |last=Gray}}</ref><ref name="Sullivan" /> He was named Ernest after his father, but was commonly known as Gary, the middle name given to him by his mother after the actor [[Gary Cooper]].<ref name="witwer" />{{rp|16}} The family lived on Kenmore Avenue, close enough to [[Wrigley Field]]<ref>{{cite web |title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part I, Page 19) |publisher = EN World |date = September 17, 2002 |url = http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/22566-q-gary-gygax-part-i-19.html |access-date = May 10, 2010| quote = I was born in Chicago about four blocks from Wrigley Field. |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110614223516/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/22566-q-gary-gygax-part-i-19.html| archive-date = June 14, 2011| url-status = dead}}</ref> that he could hear the roar of the crowds watching the [[Chicago Cubs]] play.<ref name="witwer" />{{rp|15}} At age 7, he became a member of a small group of friends who called themselves the "Kenmore Pirates". In 1946, after the Kenmore Pirates were involved in a fracas with another gang of boys,<ref>{{cite web |title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part IX, Page 59) |publisher = EN World |date = July 5, 2005 |url = http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/125997-gary-gygax-q-part-ix-59.html |access-date = May 10, 2010 |quote=We got into a serious fracas with a big gang of boys from further north, there were at least 30 of them to our dozen, but that's a whole different story, and the main reason my father decided to move from Chicago. |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110614223631/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/125997-gary-gygax-q-part-ix-59.html |archive-date = June 14, 2011 |url-status = dead }}</ref> his father decided to move the family to Posey's family home in [[Lake Geneva, Wisconsin]],<ref name="lakegenevanews">{{cite news |url=http://www.lakegenevanews.net/Obituary-32474.112112-Ernest-Gary-Gygax.html |title=Obituaries – Ernest "Gary" Gygax |access-date=April 18, 2012 |newspaper=Lake Geneva Regional News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121115101108/http://www.lakegenevanews.net/Obituary-32474.112112-Ernest-Gary-Gygax.html |archive-date=November 15, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> where Posey's family had settled in the early 19th century, and where Gary's grandparents still lived.<ref name="Sullivan" /><ref>{{cite web |title = Gary Gygax: Q & A (Part I, Page 19) |publisher = EN World |date = September 17, 2002 |url = http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/22566-q-gary-gygax-part-i-19.html |access-date = May 10, 2010 |quote = My maternal family has been in Lake Geneva since circa 1836. |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110614223516/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/22566-q-gary-gygax-part-i-19.html |archive-date = June 14, 2011 |url-status = dead }}</ref><ref name="Wired">{{cite magazine |last=Kushner |first=David |title=Dungeon Master: The Life and Legacy of Gary Gygax |magazine=Wired |url=https://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/news/2008/03/ff_gygax |access-date=October 16, 2008 |date=March 10, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113190652/http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/news/2008/03/ff_gygax?currentPage=all |archive-date=November 13, 2012 }}</ref>

In this new setting, Gygax soon made friends with several of his peers, including [[Don Kaye]] and Mary Jo Powell. During his childhood and teen years, he developed a love of games and an appreciation for fantasy and science fiction literature. When he was five, he played card games such as [[pinochle]] and then board games such as [[chess]].<ref name="ts08">{{cite news |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/2008/11/08/gary_gygax_king_nerd.html |title=Gary Gygax, King Nerd |last=Barmak |first=Sarah |date=November 8, 2008 |newspaper=[[Toronto Star]] |access-date=November 22, 2019 |page=ID.2 |issn=0319-0781 |id={{ProQuest |439502351}}}}</ref><ref name="EconomistObit" /> At age ten, he and his friends played the sort of make-believe games that eventually came to be called "[[live action role-playing game]]s", with one of them acting as referee.<ref name="longbio">Gygax, Gary (2005). ''Long Biography of E(rnest) Gary Gygax'' (revision 6-05)</ref> His father introduced him to science fiction and fantasy through [[Pulp magazine|pulp novels]].<ref name="Sullivan" /><ref name="EconomistObit">{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/obituary/2008/03/13/gary-gygax |title=Gary Gygax |date=March 13, 2008 |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |access-date=November 22, 2019 |issn=0013-0613 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> His interest in games, combined with an appreciation of history, eventually led Gygax to begin playing [[Miniature wargaming|miniature war games]] in 1953 with his best friend, Don Kaye.<ref name="EconomistObit" /> As teenagers, Gygax and Kaye designed their own miniatures rules for toy soldiers with a large collection of {{nowrap|54 mm}} and {{nowrap|70 mm}} figures, where they used "ladyfingers" (small [[firecracker]]s) to simulate explosions.<ref name="Dragon #103">{{cite journal |title = TSR Profiles |journal = [[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]] | issue = #103 |page = 56 |publisher = TSR, Inc. |location = [[Lake Geneva, Wisconsin]] |date = November 1985}}</ref>

By his teens, Gygax had a voracious appetite for [[Pulp magazine|pulp fiction]] authors such as [[Robert E. Howard]], [[Jack Vance]], [[Fritz Leiber]], [[H. P. Lovecraft]], and [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]].<ref name="witwer" />{{rp|40}} He was a mediocre student, and in 1956, a few months after his father died, he dropped out of high school in his junior year.<ref name="witwer" />{{rp|43}} He joined the [[United States Marine Corps|Marines]], but after being diagnosed with [[walking pneumonia]], he received a medical discharge and moved back home with his mother.<ref name="witwer" />{{rp|49}} From there, he commuted to a job as a shipping clerk with [[Kemper Insurance Co.]] in Chicago. Shortly after his return, a friend introduced him to [[Avalon Hill]]'s new wargame ''[[Gettysburg (game)|Gettysburg]].'' Gygax was soon obsessed with the game, often playing marathon sessions once or more a week.<ref>{{Cite book |title=[[The Fantasy Roleplaying Gamer's Bible]] |last=Fannon |first=Sean P. |date=1999 |publisher=Obsidian Studios |others=Link, Brett., Acevedo, Aaron., Cummings, Victoria., Fannon, Sean Patrick. |isbn=0-9674429-0-7 |edition=2nd |location=Jacksonville |oclc=45357120 |author-link=Sean Patrick Fannon}}</ref> It was also from Avalon Hill that he ordered the first blank [[hex map]]ping sheets available, which he then employed to design his own games.<ref name="telegraph">{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1580839/Gary-Gygax.html |title=Obituary of Gary Gygax; Godfather of Role-Playing Games and Co-Creator of Dungeons & Dragons |date=March 6, 2008 |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |access-date=November 22, 2019 |location=London |page=25 |issn=0307-1235 |id={{ProQuest |321557865}} |url-access=registration}}</ref>

About the same time that he discovered ''Gettysburg'', his mother reintroduced him to Mary Jo Powell, who had left Lake Geneva as a child and just returned. Gygax was smitten with her and, after a short courtship, persuaded her to marry him, despite being only 19. This caused some friction with Kaye, who had also been wooing Mary Jo. Kaye refused to attend Gygax's wedding. Kaye and Gygax reconciled after the wedding.<ref name="witwer" />{{rp|47}}

The couple moved to Chicago where Gygax continued as a shipping clerk at Kemper Insurance. He found a job for Mary Jo there, but the company laid her off when she became pregnant with their first child.<ref name=witwer />{{rp|53}} He also took [[anthropology]] classes at the [[University of Chicago]].<ref name="TheTimesObit" /><ref name="Sullivan" />

Despite his commitments to his job, raising a family, and attending college, Gygax continued to play wargames. It reached the point that Mary Jo, pregnant with their second child, believed he was having an affair and confronted him in a friend's basement only to discover him and his friends sitting around a map-covered table.<ref name=witwer />{{rp|55}}

In 1962, Gygax got a job as an insurance underwriter at [[Fireman's Fund Insurance Co.]] His family continued to grow, and after his third child was born, he decided to move his family back to Lake Geneva.<ref name="TheTimesObit" /> Except for a few months he spent in [[Clinton (town), Rock County, Wisconsin|Clinton, Wisconsin]],<ref>{{cite web |title = Frank Mentzer Q & A, Part 1, Page 25 |publisher=Dragonsfoot |date=September 29, 2004 |url=http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=10717&start=360 |access-date=October 5, 2010 }}</ref> after his divorce, and his time in Hollywood while he was the head of TSR's entertainment division, Lake Geneva was his home for the rest of his life.<ref>{{cite web |title=Story of Gary Gygax & Lake Geneva |url=https://www.gygaxmemorialfund.org/gary-gygax-and-lake-geneva |website=Gygax Memorial Fund |access-date=August 27, 2023}}</ref>
 
By 1966, Gygax was active in the wargame hobby world and was writing many magazine articles on the subject.<ref name="playingworld" />{{Rp|9–10}} He learned about [[H. G. Wells]]'s ''[[Little Wars]]'' book for play of military miniatures wargames and [[Fletcher Pratt]]'s ''Naval Wargame'' book. Gygax later looked for innovative ways to generate random numbers, and used not only common six-sided [[dice]], but dice of all five [[Platonic solid]] shapes,<ref name="Parker2008">{{cite news | last = Parker | first = Laura | date =March 7, 2008 | title = Gary Gygax: Founding father of fantasy computer games and co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons | work = The Guardian | url = https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/mar/07/games?gusrc=rss&feed=technology | access-date = October 7, 2008}}</ref> which he discovered in a school supply catalog.<ref name="Wired" />

Gygax cited as influences the fantasy and science fiction authors [[Robert E. Howard]], [[L. Sprague de Camp]], [[Jack Vance]], [[Fletcher Pratt]], [[Fritz Leiber]], [[Poul Anderson]], [[A. Merritt]], and [[H. P. Lovecraft]].<ref>{{cite journal| last = Gygax | first = Gary| year = 1985| title = On the influence of J.R.R. Tolkien on the D&D and AD&D games| journal = [[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]| issue = 95 | pages = 12–13| quote=A careful examination of the games will quickly reveal that the major influences are Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, Fritz Leiber, Poul Anderson, A. Merritt, and H.P. Lovecraft.}}</ref>