I bought this book hoping to glean secrets of how to become a famous illustrator. What I got was the best entertainment since Mark Twain's "Roughing It". It's not, "Well, I was born here, I had a good (or bad) childhood, I went to art school, and became famous".

Norman Rockwell had a quirky family, quirky neighbors, played boyhood pranks, had little boy models play pranks on him, and served in WWI by painting portraits of all his officers and quirky navy pals. He goes into ineresting detail about everyone.

He tells about his teachers and classes. One teacher was George Bridgeman. (He didn't know who Bridgeman was, so he flipped a coin to see if he should sign up under him or the "other" teacher.)

When he talks about his art classes, he mentions what the teachers said, and what he learned. (George Bridgman would rate all the paintings in the room, and Rockwell was dissappointed that he was only number 2 and never number 1. George Bridgeman told him, (implying that the number 1 guy was just the best at copying Bridgman), "Don't try to be number 1, be an ORIGINAL). He talks about when he submitted his first Post Cover, how intimidated he was, and if he could just paint ONE, he would be famous, happy and rich for life. (He went all the way down to the POST building, and almost didn't go inside.)

I have not finished the book yet, but I don't care if Rockwell ever becomes famous or not, I am having so much fun finding out what happens next. Reading this book is like sitting down with Rockwell at his house and saying, "Tell us a funny story about something that happened in your life." He lights his pipe, thinks a minute, and decribes it so that you can see it all: the background, the people, the dialect, and then, the funny climax -- just like a post cover.

I want tell you everything in the book to entice you to buy it, but then you would know all the punch lines, and I can't tell them as well as he can. So buy it, snuggle up on the couch, and have a fun time.