Remembering Norman Rockwell

Dear Editor,

Early in 1943 I was living in Denver and was 10 going on 11.

My coin purse had some money in it that I had earned. I hurried to the corner drugstore 11⁄2 blocks from my parents home.

This business had a soda fountain and a well-stocked magazine stand. I ignored the temptations of the soda fountain. I wanted to buy a Superman comic book.

The Febr. 20, 1943, Saturday Evening Post caught my eye. It had an illustration by Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) on the cover. I purchased it instead.

Our fifth grade teacher had shown our class Rockwell's Four Freedoms posters. She said they were based on President Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech, made to the U.S. Congress Jan. 6, 1941.

Later, Rockwell was presented the Distinguished Service Award by the U.S. Treasury Department for his Four Freedoms illustrations.

"Freedom of Worship" was on the Feb. 27, 1942, cover of the Post, "Freedom from Want," apeared on its March 6, 1943, cover. Readers eagerly awaited Rockwell's "Freedom from Fear" illustration on the front of the March 13, 1943, edition of that magazine. In 1952, the Metropolitan Museum of Art displayed his "Freedom of Speech" painting.

A terrible fire destroyed Rockwell's art studio in May 1943. Illustrations on which he was working were burned into ashes. Fortunately, all of the Four Freedoms paintings had been shipped to publishers.

George Macy, owner of Macy's Department Stores, Paid Rockwell to update pictures in Mark Twain's stories about "Huck Finn" and "Tom Sawyer" in 1940. Collectors now pay a lot for Rockwell's art work and magazines with it.

Helen Ruth Arnold,

Trenton, Nebraska