American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell (72 page)

  
6
. “Artist Takes Alhambra Bride,”
Los Angeles Times
, April 18, 1930, p. A5.

  
7
. He lived at 140 Verdun.

  
8
. Insurance appraisal, January 7, 1931, NRM.

  
9
.
My Adventures
, p. 299.

10
. Fred Hildebrandt was born on September 26, 1899, in Chicago.

11
. Fred Hildebrandt, “Our Guest Exhibitor,”
Manor Club Bulletin
(New Rochelle), October 1948.

12
. MR, letter to Muriel Bliss, May 7, 1931, NRM.

13
. Fred Hildebrandt wrote: “Just got back from climbing to the top of Mt. Whitney. Some job. Lots of snow. Going to Death Valley from here.” Postcard to his parents postmarked June 4, 1931; courtesy of Alexandra Hoy, his daughter.

14
. Undated newspaper clipping from the file of Fred Hildebrandt; courtesy of Alexandra Hoy.

15
. MR, letter to her parents, April 1932.

16
. NR, letter to Clyde Forsythe, August 22, 1931; courtesy of Marianne Hart.

17
. Richard Rockwell, interview with the author, February 11, 2000.

18
. NR, letter to Nancy Barstow, February 1, 1932, NRM.

19
. Alissa Keir, “Our Famous Neighbors: Norman Rockwell,”
The Daily Argus
(Mt. Vernon), February 4, 1931, p. 3.

20
. MR, undated letter to her parents; courtesy of Thomas Rockwell.

21
. Ibid.

22
. Ibid.

23
. Ibid.

24
. MR, letter to her parents, April 11, 1932.

25
. “Flatbush Boy Paddles Thru Holland to Paris,” September 17, 1931; clipping courtesy of Jo Haemer, the artist’s daughter.

26
. Jo Haemer, interview with the author, March 15, 2012.

27
. Ibid.

28
. MR, undated letter to her parents.

29
. Haemer, interview with the author, March 15, 2012.

30
. Haemer left from Le Havre on September 24, 1932, aboard the SS
Waukegan
.

12. THE NEW DEAL (1933 TO 1935)

  
1
. Westchester County election records, White Plains, New York; 1932 was the first time Rockwell had voted in an election since 1924.

  
2
. NR, fishing diary, September 3, 1934, NRM.

  
3
. Ibid.

  
4
. The dog, born on Christmas Eve, 1934, was acquired from Medor Kennels on West Forty-seventh Street, in New York, NRM. It was Rockwell’s second German shepherd. In 1926, the
Post
reported that he walked to his studio every day with his German shepherd.

  
5
. Norman Kreisman, interview with the author, September 26, 2004. He lived at 140 Verdun, which Rockwell rented for a month or two in 1930.

  
6
. “To ‘California,’” clipping dated May 18, 1935; from Fred Hildebrandt’s papers; courtesy of Alexandra Hoy.

  
7
. David Rakoff, e-mail to the author, March 15, 2012.

  
8
. Tax return, July 31, 1937, NRM.

  
9
. Charlie Schudy, interview with the author, November 14, 2003.

10
. “Teacher Recalls Days as Rockwell’s Tom Sawyer,”
The Pittsburgh Pres
s, February 6, 1985, p. N6.

11
. Mark Twain,
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
(1876; New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1994), p. 89.

13. HELLO
LIFE
(FALL 1936 TO 1938)

  
1
. “The Press: Lorimer Out,”
Time
, September 7, 1936.

  
2
. F. Scott Fitzgerald, letter to Zelda, April 18, 1940, published in several letter collections.

  
3
.
My Adventures
, p. 334.

  
4
. Wes Stout, letter to NR, December 4, 1936, NRM.

  
5
. Alan Brinkley,
The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010), p. 219.

  
6
. Ibid., p. 215.

  
7
.
Magazine Circulation and Rate Trends, 1937–1955
(New York: Audit Bureau of Circulation, 1956), p. 13; courtesy of the American Society of Magazine Editors.

  
8
. Brinkley,
The Publisher
, p. 208.

  
9
. Ibid., p. 214.

10
. Clive James, “Somewhere Becoming Rain,”
The New Yorker
, July 17, 1989, p. 88.

11
. Mead Schaeffer, unpublished interview with Susan Meyer, September 30, 1980, cassette tape, NRM.

12
. Fred Hildebrandt, journal entry, April 15, 1936; courtesy of his daughter, Alexandra Hoy.

13
. Unsigned item (by Franklin P. Adams and Harold Ross), “Came/Went,”
The New Yorker
, July 17, 1937, p. 12.

14
. “Mostly, Pet Dog, Is Very Much Lost,”
The Daily Argus
(Mt. Vernon), August 28, 1937, p. 4.

15
. Florence Emily Currie, New York Passenger Lists, 1820–1957. The family traveled first cabin while she traveled tourist class, or third cabin; see
www.ancestry.com
.

16
. They left on March 29, 1938, according to immigration records at
www.ancestry.com
.

17
. Morton Kutner, letter to NR, April 5, 1938, NRM.

18
. Cynthia Rockwell, the artist’s daughter-in-law, e-mail to the author, September 26, 2002.

19
. Receipt, New Rochelle Book Store, September 1, 1938, NRM.

20
.
The Saturday Evening Post
cover, October 8, 1938.

21
. He was Richard Wryley Birch.

22
.
My Adventures
, p. 315.

23
. Kay Ross, “County Artists Paint and Pose for Covers,”
The Herald Statesman
(Yonkers), September 7, 1935.

24
. NR, undated letter to Nancy Barstow, probably March 1939, judging from internal evidence and reference to Al Barstow’s upcoming marriage, in April 1939.

25
. Ibid.

26
. Quoted in Andrew Marr, “What the Eye Didn’t See…,”
The Observer
(London), October 6, 2001, p. 5.

27
. Richard Gregory, interview with the author, November 14, 2003.

14. ARLINGTON, VERMONT (NOVEMBER 1938 TO SUMMER 1942)

  
1
. Mead Schaeffer, unpublished interview with Susan Meyer, September 30, 1980, cassette tape, NRM.

  
2
. June 10, 1939, land deed, clerk’s office, Arlington, Vermont.

  
3
. Thomas Rockwell, e-mail to the author, November 25, 2012.

  
4
. Incidentally, on Friday, July 14, Rockwell had a small fire in his studio, perhaps when he and Fred were carousing; Vermont Mutual Fire Insurance Co., letter to Rockwell on July 22, 1939, NRM.

  
5
. MR, letter to Nancy Barstow, July 10, 1939; courtesy of Thomas Rockwell.

  
6
. Fred Hildebrandt, “Our Guest Exhibitor,”
Manor Club Bulletin
(New Rochelle), October 1948.

  
7
. Nanette Kutner, “If You Were Mrs. Norman Rockwell,”
Good Housekeeping
, February 1943, p. 31.

  
8
. John Updike, “An Act of Seeing: Norman Rockwell,”
Art & Antiques
, December 1990, p. 96.

  
9
. Lois Henderson Bayliss, “Artist Likes Rural Folks for Models,”
Bennington Banner
, October 13, 1939.

10
. NR, letter to Clyde Forsythe, October 11, 1939; courtesy of Marianne Hart.

11
. Bayliss, “Artist Likes Rural Folks for Models.”

12
. “Art: U.S. Illustrators,”
Time
, May 1, 1939.

13
. George Hughes, unpublished interview with Susan Meyer, November 17, 1980, cassette tape, NRM.

14
. “Rockwell’s Studio: 25 Years in New Rochelle,”
Standard Star
(New Rochelle), February 7, 1963. The house was sold on June 19, 1945, to Sidney Gaston, who is interviewed in the article.

15
. “Norman Rockwell ‘Rests’ in Alhambra, Snowed Under with Job of Painting,”
Los Angeles Times
, November 28, 1941, p. 14.

16
. Mauldin’s Willie made his debut in the
Oklahoma City Times
on October 14, 1941.

17
. Stewart Robinson, “He Paints the Town,”
Family Circle
, March 6, 1942, p. 20.

18
. MR, letter to her sister, November 11, 1941, NRM.

19
. J. Michael Barrier,
The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), p. 134.

20
. Walt Disney, unpublished letter to NR, December 31, 1941; courtesy of the Disney Archives, Burbank, CA.

21
. NR, letter to Clyde Forsythe, March 23, 1942; courtesy of Marianne Hart.

22
. It appeared in the issue of March 28, 1942.

23
. “Wesley W. Stout Resigns,”
The New York Times
, March 13, 1942, p. 21.

24
. Ben Hibbs, “
The Saturday Evening Post
reaffirms a policy,” advertisement,
The New York Times
, April 15, 1942, p. 17;
The Saturday Evening Post
, May 16, 1942, p. 18.

15. THE
FOUR FREEDOMS
(MAY 1942 TO MAY 1943)

  
1
. Donald Hyde, War Department, Ordnance, letter to NR, May 23, 1942, NRM.

  
2
. “Biography of A Poster,”
The New York Times Magazine
, August 14, 1942, p. SM16.

  
3
. Mabry letter, quoted and discussed in Maureen Hart Hennessey, “The Four Freedoms,” in Hennessy and Anne Knutson,
Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People
(New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2000), p. 96.

  
4
. According to Bill Budde, Arlington town historian, the Arlington Memorial School burned on November 9, 1940. Construction began in 1941 on a fireproof building to replace it.

  
5
. Rufus Jarman, “Profiles: U.S. Artist,”
The New Yorker
, March 17, 1945, pp. 38–45 (part 1); March 24, 1945, pp. 36–47 (part 2).

  
6
.
My Adventures
, p. 341.

  
7
. MacLeish had also been Librarian of Congress and head of the short-lived Office of Facts and Figures.

  
8
. Thomas Mallon, “A Career Careerist,”
Los Angeles Times
, June 28, 1992, p. BR2.

  
9
. MacLeish to Kuniyoshi, dated June 24, 1942; Kuniyoshi papers, Archives of American Art; cited in ShiPu Wang’s dissertation on Kuniyoshi, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2000.

10
. “Artists’ War Work Centralized in OWI,”
The New York Times
, August 9, 1942, p. 42.

11
. James Yates to Norman Rockwell, June 26, 1942, NRM; quoted in Virginia M. Mecklenburg,
Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg
(New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2010), pp. 106–7.

12
. Leo Burnett, letter to NR, July 22, 1942, NRM.

13
. Joseph F. Sinneen, “Inside Boston,”
The Boston Globe
, June 24, 1932, p. 9.

14
. Tom Burton, “A Model American,”
The Orlando Sentinel
, August 17, 1997.

15
. Robert Hughes, “The Rembrandt of Punkin Crick,” obituary,
Time
, November 20, 1978, p. 110.

16
. Jarman,
The New Yorker
, part one, p. 38.

17
. Quoted in Stuart Murray and James McCabe,
Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms
(New York: Gramercy Books, 1998), p. 60.

18
. Ibid.

19
. Susan Sontag,
Regarding the Pain of Others
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux), p. 85.

20
. “Freedom from Fear,”
Bennington Banner
, August 5, 1943, p. 1.

21
. J. M. Schoenwald, secretary to H. C. Bloomingdale, letter to NR, December 12, 1944, NRM.

22
.
The Saturday Evening Post
, March 13, 1943, p. 10.

23
. Murray and McCabe,
Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms
, p. 78.

24
. John Morton Blum,
Roosevelt and Morgenthau
(New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1972), p. 428.

25
. Hecht’s, various display advertisements,
The Washington Post
, 1942.

26
. “Norman Rockwell to be Honor Guest at Reception,”
The Washington Post
, April 21, 1943, p. B7.

27
.
The Washington Post
, April 27, 1943, p. 1.

28
. “Four Freedoms Artist to Get Bond Citation,”
The Washington Post
, April 26, 1943, p. 8.

29
. Thomas Rockwell, interview with the author, December 17, 1999.

30
. Samuel Beckett, interview with Tom Driver, Columbia University Forum, summer 1961.

31
. William Clark, “Norman Rockwell Sometimes Jumps Out of Bed to Sketch,”
The Boston Globe
, May 30, 1943, p. D3.

32
. Later accounts say that Rockwell drove to get help, but the initial newspaper coverage reports that Thaddeus Wheaton was the one who went to get help from the Squiers family.

33
. Clark,
The Boston Globe.

34
. Jarman,
The New Yorker
, part one, p. 44.

35
. NR, letter to Clyde Forsythe, postmarked April 18, 1944; courtesy of Marianne Hart.

36
.
The Saturday Evening Post
, November 13, 1943.

16. “SLOWLY FELL THE PICKET FENCE” (JUNE 1943 TO SUMMER 1947)