One Friday evening, way back in the early 1970s, my father and I were making our weekly visit to the town library when I came across a book documenting the illustrations painted by Norman Rockwell. It was a big colourful coffee-table book, and I was usually encouraged to leave those alone, but this time Dad was just as keen as I was to borrow it because 'Norman Rockwell is the greatest illustrator in the world.' He was not wrong and I have remained a loyal fan of Mr Rockwell ever since.
I always meant to track down a copy of the book to have for myself, and while I was looking for it online recently, I came across this great lump of a biography that I didn't even know existed. As Christmas was just around the corner, one of my dear sons offered to buy it for me as a present and I can honestly say I have loved every page of it. In fact I loved it so much that I re-organised all our bookshelves so that my art section is now at nose level in the dining room.
Norman Rockwell dictated the content of the book to his son Tom, so the writing has a wonderful flow to it, and in my imagination I gave him the voice of the actor James Stuart from the film It's a Wonderful Life because their personalities seemed much the same.
In the early part of the twentieth century magazine editors relied on illustrators to produce their covers, and competition was fierce when it came to working for prestigious publications such as The Saturday Evening Post. Only the very best artists made the grade and every cover took weeks to paint. Norman Rockwell always used live models and authentic props for his work, and his style soon became recognizable right across the United States.
Even after all these years, Norman Rockwell is still the greatest illustrator the world has ever seen (well, in my opinion anyway!) and reading his biography feels like stepping over the frames of his pictures and into a gentler world.
This book was first published in 1960s but was re-issued in 2020.
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