I just finished Empire of Imagination (EoI) and found it an easy and enjoyable read. It is a biography in the traditional sense of the man who co-authored the White Box and founded TSR Hobbies. The Jeff Easley cover illustration fits the narrative very nicely and really tells much of the story in a single picture. Mr. Gygax was a guy who worked long hours at the typewriter, who was part hippie rebel, part conservative nerd, who fueled his marathon bouts of creativity with buttermilk, beer, wine, coffee and cigarettes, and who gave the world new light in the guise of a game.
In EoI we follow Mr. Gygax from boyhood to death, sharing in his joys and his heartbreaks and there were many of each. Author Michael Witwer reminds us often that Mr. Gygax's inner child was strong and to some extent Gary never grew up entirely, never stopped having fun. We are also shown the weight of responsibility he must have felt as father of five, eventually six, children who often struggled to pay bills, and as the president of an often stressful company, TSR Hobbies. He was subject to early and frequent loss of people close to him, and much like Shakespeare's Hamlet, he was haunted by his relationship at the end with his father. He was demonized by some as a so-called corrupter of youth and inventor of a game they feared and worshiped by others as the father of the hobby they loved.
Through-out the story imagination plays a central theme in the life of Mr. Gygax and the hobby he helped create. Gary's imagination and ability to organize his thoughts and get them on paper and into the hands of others is a central theme in this book. It is full of factual information about a man who has become legendary. Over the years there have been many gamers who have told me their Gary Gygax story, how they sat at Gary's table, or met him once and what he supposedly said to them. EoI gives us a glimpse into the life of the real man with all his gifts and faults.
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