Includes bibliographical references (p. [375]-380) and index

Introduction -- Paint like a man -- American, Gothic -- Wood into stone -- A fabled life -- Epilogue.

Wood was one of America's most famous regionalist painters. In his time he was an "almost mythical figure," recognized supremely for his hard-boiled farm scene, American Gothic, a painting that has come to reflect the essence of America's traditional values--a simple decent, home spun tribute to our lost agrarian age. America's most acclaimed, and misunderstood, regionalist painter, Grant Wood, is revealed to have been anything but plain, or simple