The most famous American painting may be Wood's American Gothic, with its weathered, pitchfork-holding farmer and aproned wife. Readers meet the mid-Western farm boy who studied art in France and Germany, but always returned to America's heartland. His style was clean and photographically precise, his landscapes "...real?and not quite real?at the same time." Critics called his style "Regionalism" and began to notice and celebrate American painters. Duggleby's title is fittingly large and square, with cover and endpapers decorated with cows, chickens, and farm implements. Wood's paintings are beautifully reproduced, most in full color, and the wide margins, decorated chapter headings, and clear typeface make the book a pleasure to read. The author writes with great skill, telling Wood's story not simply with dates and places, but with anecdotes, descriptions, and snatches of conversation. He brings the artist to life?his shyness and stubbornness, his dreams and disappointments, his way of winning friends, and his determination to paint in his own way. He makes Wood out to be a person worth knowing and knowing about. Few books, if any, are available on the subject. This gem of a book is marred only by a lack of documentation. Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.