American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell (76 page)

  
6
. Bob Abrams, interview with the author, July 11, 2011.

  
7
. David Dempsey,
“
Norman Rockwell Illustrator,”
The New York Times Book Review
, November 1, 1970, p. 283.

  
8
. Christopher Finch, conversation with the author, July 25, 2011.

  
9
. Phil Casey, “Norman Rockwell: More Than Half a Century Illustrating the Human Drama,”
The Washington Post
, November 4, 1970, p. D1.

10
. “Notes and Footnotes,”
The Berkshire Eagle
, December 9, 1970.

11
. Audiotape of
The David Frost Show
, December 2, 1970, NRM.

12
. Casey, “Norman Rockwell.”

13
.
The New York Times Book Review
, list of bestsellers, January 10, 1971.

14
. Danenberg, letter to NR, January 28, 1971; courtesy of Larry Casper.

15
. Molly Rockwell, letter to Danenberg, January 31, 1971; courtesy of Larry Casper.

16
. Danenberg, letter to NR, January 28, 1971; courtesy of Larry Casper.

17
. Ibid.

18
. Agreement between Harry N. Abrams, Inc., and Norman Rockwell, April 19, 1971; courtesy of Abrams, New York.

19
. NR, letter to Danenberg, August 31, 1971, NRM.

20
. Sarah Faunce to Tom Buechner, internal memo, April 22, 1971, Brooklyn Museum archives.

21
. Duncan Cameron, letter to Danenberg, June 28, 1971, Brooklyn Museum archives.

22
. Cameron, letter to Evan Hopkins Turner, July 6, 1971, Brooklyn Museum archives.

23
. Evan H. Turner, letter to Cameron, July 13, 1971, Brooklyn Museum archives.

24
. Cameron, letter to NR, February 4, 1972, Brooklyn Museum archives.

25
. NR, letter to Cameron, February 8, 1972, Brooklyn Museum archives.

26
. Tom Buechner, letter to NR, February 22, 1972, Brooklyn Museum archives.

27
. NR, letter to Cameron, March 7, 1972, Brooklyn Museum archives.

28
. He is listed as the owner of six paintings in the
Sixty Year
catalog.

29
. Jan Henry James, publicist, memo to Cameron, March 23, 1972, Brooklyn Museum archives.

30
. Peter Schjeldahl, “Still on the Side of the Boy Scouts—But Why Not?”
The New York Times
, June 24, 1973, p. 125.

31
. Schjeldahl, conversation with the author, February 15, 2012.

33. “BUT I WANT TO GO TO MY STUDIO” (1972 TO 1978)

  
1
. He was first identified publicly as an Alzheimer’s patient in November 1984, in “The Disease of the Century,”
Newsweek
, December 3, 1984, p. 56.

  
2
. NR, letter to Patty Tang, then secretary at the Danenberg gallery, August 16, 1972; courtesy of Larry Casper.

  
3
. “Celebrity Week,”
The Berkshire Eagle
, September 18, 1972, p. 18.

  
4
. Donald Walton,
A Rockwell Portrait: An Intimate Biography
(Kansas City, MO: Sheed Andrews and McMeel, 1978), p. 271.

  
5
. Jane Fitzpatrick, interview with the author, September 1, 2000.

  
6
. Ibid.

  
7
. Quoted in Cameron Crowe, “Candid Conversation: An Outrageous Conversation with the Actor, Rock Singer and Sexual Switch-Hitter,”
Playboy
, September 1976, available at
www.bowiegoldenyears.com/articles/7609-playboy.html
.

  
8
. Virginia Loveless, interview with the author, August 22, 2011.

  
9
. Ibid.

10
. Ibid.

11
. Molly Rockwell, letter to Kitty More, April 16, 1975, collection of author.

12
. John Bryson, “Norman Rockwell, Beloved Painter of Homespun America, Is Going Strong at 82,”
People
, February 23, 1976, p. 42.

13
. Molly Rockwell, letter to Kitty More, March 1, 1976; collection of the author.

14
. Louie Lamone, interview with Annie Pettegrew, July 22, 1988, transcript, NRM.

15
. Louie Lamone, interview with Annie Pettegrew, November 5, 1987, transcript, NRM.

16
. David Wood, interview with Annie Pettegrew, July 6, 1988, transcript, NRM.

17
. Saul Pett, “Artist Won People but Not Critics,” Associated Press, December 18, 1977.

18
. Lamone, interview with Annie Pettegrew, July 22, 1988.

19
. Wood, interview with Annie Pettegrew, July 6, 1988.

20
. Molly Rockwell, letter to Ursula Niebuhr, undated, box 51, Reinhold Niebuhr Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My greatest debt is to the children of Norman Rockwell, who, despite their own artistic leanings and creative undertakings, took time to nurture mine. Jarvis Rockwell, Thomas Rockwell, and Peter Rockwell encouraged me to embark on this project and have been wholly supportive of my desire to write a definitive biography of their father. They gave me access to a large body of unpublished material and granted me permission to quote from it. They signed a legal contract that authorized the release of their father’s psychiatric records. Moreover, they agreed to be interviewed many times and provided me with essential insights into their father’s art and life.

Although he is in his eighties now, Tom Rockwell also found time to patiently answer hundreds of e-mail queries and locate a long-missing suitcase filled with pertinent papers. His radiant daughter, Abigail Rockwell, a singer and songwriter, has become a valued friend. Among family members, I also wish to acknowledge the good-natured help of Nova Rockwell, Cinnie Rockwell, Richard Rockwell, John Rockwell, Sally Hill Cooper, Mary Amy Orpen, and Nancy Punderson.

In the course of my research trips to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, I benefited enormously from the exemplary professionalism of the staff of the Norman Rockwell Museum. A singular institution, it houses the bulk of Rockwell’s artwork, as well as his writings and personal records. Museum director Laurie Norton Moffatt and chief curator Stephanie Plunkett could not have been more generous in sharing their time and expertise with me. Linda Szekely Pero, the former curator at the museum, facilitated my research and put many elusive documents at my disposal. Venus Van Ness, the current archivist, was unfailingly nimble in unearthing whatever seemingly vanished letter I needed. Thomas Mesquita, the museum registrar, helped locate image files of Rockwell’s work and was always willing to go back and look for ever higher resolutions.

I am indebted to Nancy Fitzpatrick, the owner of the Red Lion Inn, who found room for me on many occasions there and elsewhere in Stockbridge. In the summer of 2008 she installed me in her mother’s residence in The Knoll, a renovated apartment building on Main Street and the original home of Dr. Austen Riggs, the founder of the psychiatric hospital that bears his name. It was there that I had the good fortune to meet Adele Knight Boyd, an elegant widow who lived across the hall. As chance had it, she had been married to Dr. Robert Knight, who had been the medical director of the Austen Riggs Center in the years when Rockwell was treated there. Adele and I had many delightful conversations about Riggs and its colorful history. One day she surprised me by walking into her bedroom and pulling out, from beneath her bed, a large storage box that contained a complete collection of Dr. Knight’s appointments books. She suggested I might want to take a peek.

Additional material pertaining to Rockwell’s treatment with Erik Erikson came directly from the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In particular, I am indebted to Dr. M. Gerard Fromm, the Evelyn Stefansson Nef Director Emeritus of the Erikson Institute for Education and Research. I also owe thanks to Dr. Allen Wheelis and Dr. Anthony Philip, who were associated with Riggs early in their careers.

Lawrence J. Friedman, who wrote a biography of Erik Erikson, gave freely of his time and research. Robert Coles and Stephen Schlein, both of whom studied under Erikson, went out of their way to help me better understand his approach to psychotherapy.

I am indebted to Kai Erikson, who, though burdened with his own writing deadlines, helped me gain access to his father’s papers and granted me permission to quote from them. His sister, Sue Erikson, was also generous with her time.

A handful of art critics and scholars have written brilliantly about Rockwell’s work and American culture. I have benefited from their insights and, in some cases, from inspired conversations over lunch or dinner. I refer chiefly to Dave Hickey, Robert Rosenblum, Adam Gopnik, Steven Heller, Karal Ann Marling, Walt Reed, Richard Halpern, Michele H. Bogart, and Susan E. Meyer.

Collectors of Rockwell’s work, especially George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, have been generous in allowing access to it. For their help in arranging interviews and furnishing me with reproductions, I am indebted to Connie Wethington in Lucas’s office and to Marvin Levy and Elizabeth Nye in Spielberg’s office.

Many other people agreed to be interviewed and provided valuable information, including Bob Abrams, Mary Alcantara, David Apatoff, Jonathan Best, Ruby Bridges, Anne Fitzpatrick Brown, Laurence Casper, Richard Clemens, Jan Cohn, Bernard Danenberg, James “Buddy” Edgerton, Joy Edgerton, Richard Estes, Sarah Faunce, Jane Fitzpatrick, Audrey Flack, William Gibson, Dan Grant, Richard Gregory, Elaine Gunn, Arlo Guthrie, Jo Haemer, Gary Hallwood, Don Hubert, Jr., Emilie Jungschaffer, Clemens Kalischer, Al Kooper, Norman Kreisman, Ed Locke, Virginia Loveless, Jack Masey, Diane Disney Miller, Helen Morgan, Diana Mugnaini, Howard Munce, Ross Perot, Nancy Punderson, Sherman Safford, Charlie Schudy, Jim Shuffleton, Ken Stuart, Jr., Patty Tang, Mary (Atherton) Varchaver, Scott Walton, John Waters, Elizabeth White, Marion Wilmott, Christopher Wren, and Linda Zonana.

I am grateful to the staff of various institutions for access to the letters and documents in their possession. I wish to acknowledge Matt Wribican, the archivist of the Andy Warhol Museum; Jillian Russo of the Art Students League; Diana Thompson at the National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts; Corry Kanzenberg, the former curator at the National Scouting Museum (the official museum of the Boy Scouts of America); Marisa Bourgoin, archivist of the Corcoran Gallery of Art; Lewis Wyman, reference librarian at the Library of Congress; Christopher Abraham, archivist at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum; Randy Sowell, archivist at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum; Leslie Morris, curator at the Houghton Library, Harvard University; Kristen McDonald at Yale University Library; Barbara Allen, curator of the archives at the Stockbridge library; Diane Williams at Milton Academy; Sally Williams, Adam Husted, and Angie Park at the Brooklyn Museum; Lynne Crowley, archivist at the Larchmont Historical Society; Richard C. Leab in the local history department of the Berkshire Athenaeum; and John Favareau, local history librarian at the Yonkers Public Library.

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.