New York, 1913. Vaudeville theatre is king, newspapers rule the nation, and motion pictures are little more than a novelty. But cartoonist Winsor McCay dreams of something no one has ever seen before: drawings that live, breathe, and possess a soul. As he embarks on the impossible task of creating Gertie, a “living” animated dinosaur, he finds himself caught between artistic ambition, the iron grip of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, the turmoil of family life, and the dazzling, tumultuous, chaotic world of Broadway, Coney Island, and the birth of American cinema.
Richly imagined and grounded in remarkable historical detail, Winsor and Gertie: A Dinosaur’s Tale brings to life an unforgettable cast of real-life figures—from Buster Keaton and J. Stuart Blackton to Hearst himself—while revealing the complex conflicting forces behind the creation of one of animation’s greatest milestones. A sweeping novel of invention, imagination, and the dawn of modern entertainment, this historical fiction deepens our understanding of Winsor McCay and his art, and illuminates the extraordinary vision that forever changed the way the world dreams.
Winsor and Gertie takes a novelistically original, unpredictable and human perspective with the most original, unpredictable and human innovator of American animation and the early comic strip, Winsor McCay. Animated images now define nearly every corner of contemporary media—in films, AI and the operating systems of our phones if not even our very thoughts—and I’m grateful for Crafton for dramatically reanimating, with sympathy and imagination, its most original and creative inventors.
—Chris Ware, cartoonist and graphic novelist
With this novel Donald Crafton has found a new way to introduce the man and his remarkable work to newcomers..
— Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian
McCay's preference for the dreams and nightmares of humanity is a fascinating—and highly novelistic—trait. He was definitively the Great American Baroque living in the Age of Slapstick action.
—Thierry Smolderen, comics scholar
Donald Crafton, the dean of silent animation historians, has dug even deeper into the lore of cartoonist Winsor McCay and his pioneering achievements in motion picture character animation. This new book crafts the narrative with a fresh approach, bringing a particular chapter of McCay’s story to vivid life. Chronicling a man of talent so incredible, with achievements so profound, Crafton has put it all together in a thoroughly entertaining read.
—Jerry Beck, animation historian
With this playful and provocative tale of one of animation's celebrated pioneers Donald Crafton has authentically re-enacted the showmanship of silent era cartooning, fully capturing in Winsor and Gertie an intense love affair between animator and his beloved creation. Crafton illuminates the industry and novelty of early animation while vividly evoking the theatricality of twentieth-century Hollywood.
—Dr Christopher Holliday, King's College London, UK
Donald Crafton is the award-winning author of Before Mickey: The Animated Film 1898- 1928 and other books on film and animation history. He was an inaugural Academy Scholar at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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