The Secret World of Walter Anderson

This sensitive portrait of Anderson—“the most famous American artist you’ve never heard of”—paints him as a solitary man who kept a private room hidden from his wife and children and often took his rowboat to the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s isolated Horn Island to glean inspiration. Subdued watercolors evoke the artist’s love of the natural world, as he paints the coastal setting, eats in the shade of his boat and meanders among wild hogs and raccoons. Following Anderson’s death in 1965, his wife opens the room that he kept locked, discovering “the walls were covered with paintings of a Gulf Coast day.” A powerful tribute to the lengths artists will go for their passions. Ages 6–10. (Sept.)