William Pène du Bois was born in Nutley, New Jersey, on 9 May 1916. The son of American painter and art critic Guy Pène du Bois and Florence Sherman Pène du Bois, he seemed destined by family influence to become an artist. His ancestry includes painters, architects, and designers in every generation since 1738. His first wife, Jane Bouché, was also the daughter of an artist; his second wife, Willa Kim, a theatrical designer. Pène du Bois began school in the United States but received most of his education in France at the Lycée Hoche in Versailles. The rigorous discipline of the French school gave him the sense of order and careful planning evident in the precision of his writing and illustration.

Home from the boarding school every weekend, he and his sister Yvonne begged to go to the circus...