N.C. Wyeth's wondrous paintings of The Last of the Mohicans, Robinson Crusoe, and Treasure Island have given visual form to these stories for generations of readers. Wyeth's extraordinary pictures still carry all the power they had in their heyday. And communal, millennial-bound nostalgia for the first half of the 20th century gives the paintings, if possible, an even more sentimental glow. This meticulous, encompassing study of the tempestuous, difficult, brilliant illustrator also delves into the entire clan of famous Wyeth artists, including Andrew (who was offered a bribe to delay his marriage), and Peter Hurd (who married Andrew's sister Henriette then escaped with her to New Mexico).

David Michaelis has done an extraordinary amount of research, and the book should mesmerize Wyeth fans. But he seems to doubt his own ability to make this dramatic material come alive, for he resorts to false suspense--using a baby's death and the suggestion of foul play on page 1 to hook the reader, but nearly 200 pages later allows that there's not really any evidence for his conjectures. And he liberally employs italics, giving the text an insistent tone that is at times intrusive. Nonetheless, Michaelis adroitly chronicles Wyeth's complicated, fraught relationship with his family. And he is especially perceptive in his analysis of N.C.'s stormy ties to his mentor, Howard Pyle. The artist's genteel inability to talk money, even during the Depression; his devotion to his neurotic mother; and the magical world of Chadd's Ford, where he watchfully, jealously raised his children, are all beautifully described. This is a valuable, multifaceted look at a passionate, difficult subject. In the end, Wyeth emerges, warts and all, as a complex individual, whose inner life was thoroughly entwined with every aspect of his art. --Peggy Moorman


From Publishers Weekly
The violent deaths of N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945), arguably America's greatest illustrator, and his little grandson in a mysterious car accident contrasted markedly with his cozy, seemingly uneventful life, which was characterized beneath its placid surface by strong, ambivalent attachments to home and family. The son of a Massachusetts farmer and a Swiss-German immigrant, Wyeth began his professional career while studying under a giant of American picture making, Howard Pyle, and went on to become famous for his own editions of Treasure Island, The Last of the Mohicans and Robin Hood. All the while, he complained about the necessity of illustrating, which seemed to him a distraction from his true calling as a painter; from an early age, he raised his son Andrew to succeed where he had failed. Michaelis's graceful, informative but unfocused biography, which excerpts heavily from correspondence in the family archives, too often reads like a series of quotations, loosely stitched together. Absent consistent diagnoses, its repeated references to Wyeth's depressions and his mother's "nervous derangement" bog the narrative down and remain a puzzle. And although Michaelis (The Best of Friends) documents Wyeth's attempt to paint landscapes, he never addresses the question that was central to Wyeth's career: did his illustrations ever succeed as art? Michaelis identifies the source for some of Wyeth's most inspired illustrations; he even finds traits of Wyeth's difficult mother in his illustration of Treasure Island's reptilian Captain Pew. Still, the book offers too much evidence?that Wyeth was searching for a spiritual home, that Wyeth remained unfulfilled?and not enough summing up. Color and b&w plates not seen by PW. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Adam Gopnik
...well written, conscientious and, on the whole, enthralling. He is a demon researcher and can turn a phrase...


The Atlantic Monthly, Phoebe-Lou Adams
Wyeth was one of the greatest of illustrators in the days when magazines and fine books carried pictures by artists instead of arrangements by photographers. Illustration, however, was considered little better than a craft, and Wyeth persistently longed for time (and funds) to do "serious" painting. He never found it. He did found a dynasty of painters, but this he could not foresee through the years of complaint and depression and bad temper over what he considered the inadequacy of his work. How much of his trouble arose from the influence of his mother--a real terror of sugarcoated tyranny--and how much from the rapid social changes of the time cannot be determined, although Mr. Michaelis puts much sensible effort into the question, and the reader cannot avoid taking a steady interest in it.


From Booklist
With unencumbered access to five generations of Wyeth family archives, Michaelis has written an exhaustive biography of famed children's book illustrator N. C. Wyeth. Wyeth's artwork and career are overshadowed here by Michaelis' many psychological theories and observations of the artist's personal life. From the time he was born in 1882, Newell Convers Wyeth never escaped his mother's toxic influence. Henriette Zirngiebel Newell was a near-hysterical woman whose husband catered to her lifelong irrationalities. Convers was raised, and subsequently raised his own children, in an oppressive maze of family secrets and fantasies. Michaelis painstakingly details the sense of suffocation, duty, and obligation of "home" that Henriette instilled in her boy. "Emotional stability eluded him. He would be dependent on others to maintain equilibrium all his life." N. C. Wyeth painted beautiful illustrations, but he could barely keep his personal life from rot and decay. A fascinating life story but one likely to disappoint those interested mainly in the artist's work. Karen Simonetti


Book Description

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.


From the Publisher
"This extraordinary book restores N. C. Wyeth to his true stature in American art, and introduces a compelling new voice in American biography."
--Christopher Benfey"A full-scale, many-voiced, deeply researched study"
--Adam Gopnik, The N.Y. Times Book Review"An epic portrait...It sets the basis for considering the impact of the Wyeth art dynasty on America's collective notion of who we are...Michaelis has mined a mother lode of biographical gold."
--Ann Prichard, USA Today"An exemplary study of the influence of ancestry upon imagination, and of imagination's power to make art out of family experience. "
--Edmund Morris"Splendid"
--Edward J. Sozanski, Philadelphia Inquirer

FROM THE PUBLISHER