Norman Rockwell drew John Fisher and Dorothy Canfield Fisher and the latter wrote the preface to a book of his paintings published in 1945. The New York Times reviewed a reissue of the book here and made some interesting comments about the Rockwell style, for example 'the question arises, Is this social history? In a sense it is, but mainly as an exercise in nostalgia'. And: 'as a craftsman, Rockwell early locked himself into the tight, frozen, superphotographic technique that be came the hallmark of his work. We see the immediate scene, but no more, the freshness of his ideas often at war with the literalness of his style, his paintings playful but in a studied way that robs them of spontaneity.'