Winslow Homer is a famous name in American painting. His canvases hang in museums in New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and other important cities. He also is represented in the Musée Moderne in Paris. He painted watercolors and oils of the Caribbean, the South, the seacoast of England, the Adirondacks and the White Mountains, but it is as a painter of the Maine Coast that he is perhaps best known.

In Elizabeth Ripley's biography we follow this New Englander from his childhood in Cambridge through his days during the Civil War as an artist for Harper's Weekly, his early years in New York and his visits to France and England to his final happy years in Prout's Neck in Maine.

In describing her work on this book the author says, "I chose one of June's most sparkling days to visit Prout's Neck, Maine, where Homer lived and worked for the last twenty years of his life. I was fortunate to have as guide and hostess a long time summer resident of Prout's Neck and friend of the Homer family. Although she was still young when Homer died she remembered many anecdotes about him which helped me to visualize him as a man. As we strolled along the rocky coastline, where Homer used to walk with his fox terrier, Sam, she pointed out familiar scenes which I recognized from Homer's paintings. His pictures suddenly came alive. Perhaps because I am a New Englander myself I understood this artist who felt he must have solitude in order to devote his life to painting. His rugged character made it possible for him to pursue his chosen goal. I only hope that my book projects the sympathy and admiration I feel for one of America's greatest artists."

From the dust jacket