N. C. Wyeth: A Biography

His name summons up our earliest images of the beloved books we read as children. His illustrations for Scribner’s Illustrated Classics ( Treasure Island, Kidnapped, The Last of the Mohicans, The Yearling ) are etched into the collective memory of generations of readers. He was hailed as the greatest American illustrator of his day. For forty-three years, starting in 1902, N.C. Wyeth painted landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and murals, as well as illustrations for a long shelf of world literature. Yet despite worldwide acclaim, he judged himself a failure, believing that illustration was of no importance. David Michaelis tells the story of Wyeth’s family through four generations — a saga that begins and ends with tragedy — and brings to life the huge-spirited, deeply complicated man, and an America that was quickly vanishing.