S.T. Haggerty, Author
S.T. Haggerty’s book, NORMAN ROCKWELLS MODELS, In and Out of the Studio, was published by Rowman and Littlefield on Feb. 15, 2023.
The popular book has received many enthusiastic reviews from media like USA Today; Publisher’s Weekly; US Book Reviews; Midwest Book Reviews; New York Weekly and The Berkshire Eagle. Haggerty has been interviewed on such podcasts as the NPR Roundtable with Joe Donahue, iheart Radio’s Frankie Boyer Show, and The Historian’s Podcast.
Blackstone Audiobook read by Grover Gardner, named one of the “Best Voices of the Century” by Audiofile magazine.
Also named a Publisher’s Weekly Magazine Narrator of the Year.
30% discount “hard copy only”
from publisher Rowman.com
Use code: RLFANDF30
Or, call for friendly service: 800-462-6420″
In 1940, America’s favorite illustrator Norman Rockwell, his wife Mary and their three sons moved to the picturesque rural village of West Arlington, Vermont. The artist discovered a treasure trove of models. Norman Rockwell’s Models: In and out of the Studio is the first to detail these models’ lives, friendships with the artist, and experiences in his studio. Dressed in quaint work clothing, the models were dairy farmers, carpenters, country doctors, soldiers, and mechanics. Norman Rockwell’s Models features non-fiction narratives telling the story of these folks during an era when they helped the war effort, farmed with horses, and received home visits from doctors. The book also describes the challenges the models faced in their own lives and how these affected their expressions in the paintings. For example, in several 1945 masterpieces, the jubilance Americans felt after the close of the second word war is revealed in their faces. Upon meeting people, young or old, the artist would say, “Call Me Norman.” Rockwell learned the models’ roles in the community and their personalities, which fostered genuine paintings. He strove, for example, to find real-life soldiers to model as WWII heroes and spirited boys and girls for lively paintings.
In the studio, Norman was charming and polite, but painstaking. He demonstrated poses and did whatever was necessary to evoke his trademark expressions, including telling stories of his own life, sometimes laughing or crying. Spending entire summers at his family’s farmhouse near West Arlington, Vermont, the author, S.T. Haggerty, grew up knowing many models, including those who posed for such iconic works as Freedom of Speech, Breaking Home Ties, and Girl at the Mirror. Along with models and their families, the author hayed the scenic fields in the Batten Kill River Valley and swam under the red covered bridge on the Village Green. This experiences give him a unique perspective for telling this story.
About The Upcoming Book
NORMAN ROCKWELL’S MODELS,In and Out of the Studio
Endorsements:
“Norman Rockwell’s Models captures intimate details of the artist’s relationships with his models and the environment in which he created his most powerful and beloved images. The first-hand anecdotes from his children, neighbors, friends and colleagues shed a new light on his career. A must read for anyone who is a fan of Norman Rockwell and illustration art.” Judy Goffman Cutler, Director and co-founder of the National Museum of American Illustration.
“This is a wonderful project.” Thomas Rockwell, model for his father Norman Rockwell and co-author of bestseller Norman Rockwell, My Adventures as an Illustrator and author of bestseller, “How to Eat Fried Worms.”
“You’ve got to read these stories!” Jarvis Rockwell, a model for his father Norman Rockwell, and fine artist.
“Four generations of my family and many friends posed for Norman Rockwell when he lived next door to us. Haggerty’s detailed portraits of his models are unique, authentic, and highly entertaining. This is the way Norman was.” James A. “Buddy” Edgerton, co-author of The Unknown Rockwell, A Portrait of Two American Families.
Some of Norman’s Vermont Models
Click on a Photo to go to that Model’s Details Page
Tom Rockwell: Christmas Homecoming (Plaid shirt)
Marjorie Squiers: Freedom From Fear (Girl in Bed)
Mary Whalen Leonard:Model for Girl at the Mirror.
Don Hubert Jr.: Model for Saying Grace.
Also by S.T. Haggerty
From The Blog
USA Today Featured: A New Book Celebrates the Vermonters Who Posed for Norman Rockwell | Books | Seven Days
Steve Haggerty’s memories of vacations in Vermont in the 1960s and ’70s conjure images worthy of Norman Rockwell paintings. There’s a reason: Some of them literally were Rockwell paintings. “Norman got his models, most of them, within a two-mile area,” Haggerty said, referring to Arlington, the southern Vermont town where Rockwell lived and created his much-loved magazine […]
Acclaimed Grover Gardener Narrates Norman Rockwell’s Models Audiobook
I was out to dinner at an Italian restaurant eating spaghetti when my phone dinged. It was a note from Grover Gardner from Blackstone Audiobooks. He wrote that he read my book, Norman Rockwell’s Models, In and Out of the Studio. He explained that he was an art history fan, and asked if he could […]
The Reviews Are Pouring In!
“Of the over 4,000 illustrations Rockwell painted, Haggerty has picked the best of the best, which feature models still living and willing to share their stories. Complete with model biographies, sources, references, and illustrations of Rockwell’s work coupled with photographs of the models, this is as fascinating a read as it is entertaining and educational.” Emily-Jane Hills Orford, Readers’ […]
New York Weekly: Writing Norman Rockwell´s Models: A Journey Home
During my early career, I worked as a journalist, primarily in New York. I traveled around the city and the U.S., attending press conferences and conducting interviews. I spent many hours each week writing and editing, which I enjoyed until I began suffering from headaches. Though given many accolades, I took a break from the […]
Publisher’s Weekly Review: Norman Rockwell’s Models: In and Out of the Studio
Poet and former editor Haggerty dives deep into the work of Norman Rockwell in this illuminating survey, his debut. Uncovering “the backstories of the friends and neighbors who posed for Rockwell in the quaint, rural village of West Arlington, Vermont,” Haggerty, who spent summers in West Arlington from the age of three, uses his familiarity […]
Northeast Public Radio Interview with Joe Donahue
New book tells the stories of Norman Rockwell’s models In 1940, America’s favorite illustrator Norman Rockwell, his wife Mary and their three sons moved to the picturesque rural village of West Arlington, Vermont. The artist discovered a treasure trove of models. S.T. Haggerty’s “Norman Rockwell’s Models: In and out of the Studio” is the first […]
Always Running Late. Norman Rockwell’s Pressure Cooker.
When Norman Rockwell walked into his kitchen in West Arlington, Vermont, where he lived from 1940-1953, he would scoot past the stove if the pressure cooker confronted him. The way the steam hissed as it escaped through the cover’s valve made him nervous. Our family friend Marie Briggs was his cook/housekeeper then, and relayed this […]
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