Magdalen and Robert Livesey, who run the Famous Artists School in Wilton, Connecticut, opened their archives to me and turned up some wonderful photographs.
Warm thanks to Eric Himmel, the editor in chief at Abrams, who helped me understand Rockwell’s relationship with the publishing house and retrieved decades-old contracts. Alexandra Hoy took the time to locate the diaries and fishing logs of her father, Fred Hildebrandt. Marianne Hart shared her extensive collection of unpublished letters between Rockwell and Clyde Forsythe. After I interviewed Katharine More, she sent me a cache of vivid letters from Molly Rockwell, offering them as a gift. Robert Berridge shared his collection of clippings from the Bennington Banner. Cheryl Gould helped me gain access to the historic footage in the NBC news archive, as did Yuien Chin. I have been fortunate to find talented research assistants, among them Kate Foster and Katya Mezhibovskaya.
My literary agent, Amanda Urban, makes decisions with remarkable speed. Yet she suspended judgment and waited more than a decade for me to finish researching and writing this book. Thank you, Binky.
And thanks, too, to Jonathan Galassi and the accomplished staff at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Paul Elie was my first editor. After he decided to accept a job that would free up his time for writing, I was lucky to meet Ileene Smith, my second editor, who read my manuscript with eagle eyes and unstinting enthusiasm. Her assistant, John Knight, is a paragon of calm efficiency. Jonathan D. Lippincott, the designer of this book, wrote his own book about large-scale sculpture and has the sort of aesthetic sense that comes from a lifelong familiarity with art. Thanks, too, to Mareike Grover for her production smarts, and to Jeff Seroy and Stephen Weil for getting the word out.
I would like to thank the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for granting me a fellowship in the field of biography.
I am indebted to my dear friends, who over the years submitted cheerfully to countless hours of Rockwell-themed conversation. Some of them took the time to read earlier versions of this book and offer valuable commentary, especially Steve Martin, Daphne Merkin, Jonathan Schwartz, Rafael Yglesias, Patty Marx, Bruce McCall, and David Rakoff, who is missed every day.
My inordinately modest friend Anne Stringfield possesses a daunting knowledge of grammar and fly-fishing. She read my entire manuscript with a level of editorial attentiveness that amounts to its own art form. Thank you, Anne. You are sui generis with or without italics.
Alan Brinkley read the chapter on Life magazine, and Robert Caro read the chapter on Lyndon Johnson. Judith Gurewich, the publisher of Other Press, could not have been more supportive were I one of her authors. She was always willing to interrupt her day to look at a painting with me and talk it out, and she and her husband, Dr. Victor Gurewich, provided me with indispensable camaraderie at their homes in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and France.
My parents, Jerry and Sally Solomon, owned an art gallery in New York from 1969 until their retirement in the fall of 2006. I remain indebted to them for instilling in me an early appreciation for art and independent thinking.
For the first twenty-five years of his career, Rockwell lived in New Rochelle, New York, where, by coincidence, I grew up. It was a great pleasure to have the chance to return to New Rochelle in recent years to research its history as an art colony. I made ample use of the artists’ files at the New Rochelle Public Library, one of the few suburban libraries with a first-rate collection on art monographs.
This book is dedicated to my sons, Eli and Leo Sepkowitz. Over the years I have benefited incalculably from their compassion, good sense, and quick wit, not to mention their willingness to spend the vacations of their childhoods in Stockbridge despite the absence of a major-league baseball team. Finally, thank you to Kent Sepkowitz, a wise and infinitely generous ally, who has been there for every word.
INDEX
The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
Abbey, Edwin Austin
abortion
Abrams, Bob
Abrams, Harry N.; Rockwell monograph
Abstract Expressionism
abstraction; Rockwell’s attempts at
Académie Colarossi, Paris
Adams, Phoebe-Lou
advertising and advertisements; Arrow Collar Man; black stereotypes; Famous Artist School; magazine and; Pan Am; rise of; Rockwell’s work in; television
Afloat and Ashore
African-Americans; civil rights movement; desegregation; models; stereotypes in popular culture
after-the-event scenes
Albert, Ernest, Jr.
album covers
Alice’s Restaurant
Alloway, Lawrence
Alzheimer’s disease
Americana; see also specific paintings, subjects, genres, motifs, and themes
American Artist
American Book Company
American Boy magazine
American Journal of Psychiatry, The
American Revolution
anarchism
And Every Lad May Be Aladdin
antiques
antiwar movement
April Fool’s Day
Arcaro, Eddie
Arlington, Vermont; as an art colony
Armchair General, The
Armory Show
Armstrong, Regina
Army, U.S.
Arrow Collar Man
Art Center School, Pasadena, California
Art Critic
Arthur Godfrey and His Friends (TV show)
Artists Guild
Arts Magazine
Art Students League, New York; Bridgman’s classes at; Thomas Fogarty Illustration Class Award
Astaire, Fred
Atherton, John; death of; The Fly and the Fish; as model
Atherton, Maxine
athleticism
Atkins, Ollie
Atlantic, The
Atlantic Charter
Atlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic Monthly, The
auctions
Audubon, James John; Birds of America
Austen, Jane
Avedon, Richard
Backer, Bill
Back Room, Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Baden-Powell, Lord Robert
barbershops
Bard College
Barrie, J. M., Peter Pan
Barrymore, Ethel
Barstow, Nancy
baseball
Bauhaus
Beach, Charles Allwood
Beats
Beckett, Samuel
Before the Date
before-the-event scenes
Before the Shot
Belcher, George
Bell, Daniel
Bell, Julian
Bellows, George
Benedict, John
Benét, Stephen Vincent
Benton, Thomas Hart
Berkshire Art Center
Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Best, Jonathan
Best, Peggy Worthington; Rockwell and
Bible
Bierstadt, Albert
Biltmore Salon, Los Angeles
Birch, Dick
black eye
Blank Canvas
Bliss, Edward Leicester
Bliss, Muriel
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Bloomfield, Mike
Bloomingdale, Hiram C.
Blues Project
Blumenschein, Ernest
bohemia
book publishing
Bookworm
Boston Globe, The
Bouguereau, Adolphe-William
Bourke-White, Margaret
Bowie, David
boxing
Boyd, Adele
boys and boyhood; African-American; bare-bottomed pose; Boy Scouts idealization of; homoeroticism
and; models; Post covers of; Post delivery boys; runaway; see also male figures; models
Boy Scouts; calendars; posters; uniforms
Boy Scout’s Hike Book, The
Boys’ Life; Rockwell’s illustrations for
Boy with Baby Carriage, color insert; as Rockwell’s first Post cover
Boy with Dog in Picnic Basket
Bracknell, Mrs.
Bradbury, Ray
Braman, Jason
Brando, Marlon
Braque, Georges
Breaking Home Ties
Breckenridge, James
Bremen, SS
Brenman-Gibson, Margaret
Brennan, Francis
Bridges, Ruby
Bridgman, George
Briggs, Austin
Briggs, Clare
Briggs, Marie
Brindze, Ruth
Brinkley, Alan
Brock, Alice May
Brock, Ray
Brooklyn Art Gallery
Brooklyn Art School
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Brooklyn Museum; Rockwell acquisition; Rockwell retrospective
Brown, Joan
Brown & Bigelow
Brown Lodge
Bruegel the Elder, Pieter; The Peasant Dance
Bryant, William Cullen
Bryant Park Studio Building, New York
Buck, Robert Otis
Buechner, Thomas S.
Bulosan, Carlos
Bundy, McGeorge
Burnett, Leo
Burr, Aaron
Butch (dog)
Butterfield, Roger
calendars; Boy Scouts; Parrish
California; Rockwell in; themes
camera obscura
Cameron, Duncan
Campbell, Donald
camping
Campion, Dave
Canada
Canaletto
Caniff, Milt
Cantilever shoes
Cape Cod School of Art
Capp, Al
Capra, Frank
Carnegie, Andrew
cars
Carson, Eddie; as model
Carson, Johnny
Carter, Jimmy
cartoons; correspondence schools; Disney; military
Caruso, Enrico
“Case Against the Jew, The” (article)
Casper, Larry
Castelli (Leo) Gallery, New York
Castro, Fidel
Catholics
Cave, Edward; Boy Scout Camp Book
Cavett, Dick
CBS
celebrity portraits
Century, The
Century Company
Century Magazine, The
Cézanne, Paul
Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
Chagall, Marc
Chamberlain, Neville
Champlain, Samuel de
Chaney, James Earl
Charles Chrisdie & Company
Charles Scribner’s Sons
Chase, William Merritt
Checkers
Chicago
children: see boys and boyhood; girls and girlhood; specific paintings, themes, and models
children’s magazines
China
Christian Science Monitor, The
Christmas; cards; Post issues; theme
Christmas Homecoming
Christy, Howard Chandler
Churchill, Winston
Circus Barker (The Strongman), The
Civil Rights Act
civil rights movement
Civil War
Clarke, Emmet
Claudel, Camille
Claudy, C. H.: The Tell-Me-Why Stories
Clemens, Cyril
Clemens, Dick
Clubhouse Examination, The
Cluette, Peabody & Company
Cobb, Irvin
Coca-Cola
Coe, Fanny Eliza, Founders of Our Country
Cold War
Coles, Robert; Dead End School
Collier’s
Colonial America
Colonial Couple
color; duotone covers; four-color covers
Colorado
Columbia Records
Coming and Going
commercial art (phrase)
Communism
Connecticut
Connett, Louise
Connoisseur, The, color insert
consumerism
Coolidge, Calvin
Cooper, Gary
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Rockwell exhibition
Corinth, Lovis
Cornwell, Dean
correspondence schools
Corsi, Antonio
counterculture
Country Gentleman, The
Cousins, Norman
cowboys
Cowles Communciations
Cowley, Malcolm, “Portrait of Leyendecker”
Craik, Dinah Maria Mulock: The Little Lame Prince
Crawford, Michael
cropping
Crosby, Bing
cross-dressing
Cubism
Currie, Florence and Jack
Currier, Nathaniel
Currier & Ives
Currin, John
Curtis, Cyrus H. K. and
Curtis Building, Philadelphia
Curtis Publishing Company
Dalí, Salvador
dancing
Danenberg, Bernie; Rockwell’s Brooklyn Museum retrospective and
Danenberg Gallery, New York; Rockwell exhibition at
Daniel, Hawthorne
Davenport, Edmund Greek
David Frost Show, The (TV show)
Davis, Forrest
Davis, Stuart
Dead End School illustrations
DeFeo, Charles
Degas, Edgar
de Hooch, Pieter
de Kooning, Willem
DeMott, Benjamin
Depression
desegregation
“Deserted Village, The” (illustration)
Dexamyl
diaper cloth
Dickens, Charles; David Copperfield
diners
Disney, Diane
Disney, Sharon
Disney, Walt; Rockwell and
Dmitri, Ivan
Doctor and Doll
doctors; psychoanalysis; theme
Dodd, Mead & Company
dogs; as models
Dohanos, Stevan
Dorne, Albert
Dos Passos, John
Doubleday
Douglas, Mike
Douglas, William O.
Dover Coach
Dower, Walter H.
Doyle, Mary Louise
drawing; figure; sketchbooks
Duchamp, Marcel, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2
Dulac, Edmund
Duncan, Isadora
Durant, Will
Dürer, Albrecht
Dutch realism
Dwight, Harry
Dylan, Bob
dyslexia
Eakins, Thomas
Easter Morning
Edgerton, Buddy; as model
Edgerton, Clara
Edgerton, Jim
Edgerton, Joy
Edgewood Hall
Edison Mazda Lamp Works
Edwards, Clara
Edwards, Jonathan
Egypt
Eisenhower, Dwight D.; Rockwell and; Rockwell portrait of
electric shock therapy
Eliot, T. S.
Ellison, Ralph, Invisible Man
empty-nest despondency
Episcopalians
Erikson, Erik; Childhood and Society; at Harvard; as model; Rockwell’s portrait of; Rockwell’s therapy with; Young Man Luther
Erikson, Joan
Erikson, Kai T.
Erikson, Sue
Esquire
Estes, Richard
ethics; museum
Ethiopia
Evans, Redd
Evening Standard
Evening World, The
Extra Good Boys and Girls
Fair Catch, A
Falkenburg, Jinx
fall season
Falter, John; “pulled-back panoramas”
Family Circle
family reunions
Family Tree
Famous Artists School
Fantasia
Fast, Howard
father and son theme
Faunce, Sarah
Fauvism
Fawcett, Robert
Feiffer, Jules
Feininger, Lyonel
female figures: see girls and girlhood; women
Ferargil Gallery, New York
film; Disney animation; Four Freedom newsreel; Stagecoach poster; stars; western
Finch, Christopher
fine art vs. illustration
Fisher, Dorothy Canfield
fishing
Fitzgerald, F. Scott; “Bernice Bobs Her Hair”; The Great Gatsby; “The Last of the Belles”; Post stories; Rockwell and; This Side of Paradise
Fitzgerald, Zelda
Fitzpatrick, Jane
Flack, Audrey
Flagg, James Montgomery; Uncle Sam/Army recruiting poster
Flirts, The
Florida
Fogarty, Thomas
Ford, Gerald
Ford, Henry
foreign statesmen
Forsberg, Tommy
Forsythe, Clyde; cartoons by; Rockwell and; “And They Thought We Couldn’t Fight”; western scenes
Forsythe, Cotta
Fort Peck Dam, Montana
Fortune magazine
Four Freedoms; models; newsreel; poster images for war-bond sales campaign; publicity; Roosevelt and; success of; War Bond Show; see also specific paintings
Four Vagabonds
Foxy Grandpa
Franklin, Benjamin
Freedom from Fear
Freedom from Want, color insert
Freedom of Speech; oil-on-board study for
Freedom of Worship
Freud, Anna
Freud, Sigmund
Friedman, Lawrence
frontier myth
Frost, David
Fuchs, Emil
Fuoss, Robert
Galerie St. Etienne, New York
Garber, Marjorie
Gary Cooper as The Texan, color insert
genealogical theme
General Electric
Germany; World War I; World War II
G.I. Bill
Gibson, Charles Dana; illustrations by
Gibson, William
Gibson Girl
Gifford, Sanford
Gingrich, Arnold
Girl at Mirror
girls and girlhood; African-American; see also women
girls’ heads illustrations
Glueck, Grace
Going and Coming
Golden Age of Illustration
Golden Rule, The
American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell Page 53
