Wyeth People

Twenty years ago, Logsdonthen a roving editor for Farm Journal (which he still edits)poked around rural Pennsylvania and Maine, interviewing people whom Andrew Wyeth had featured in various portrait paintings. This slim, hero-worshipping volume resulted, and one can understand why the artist asked Logsdon to desist from his snooping. Among those with whom Logsdon chatted were lumberman Ralph Cline (immortalized in Wyeth's The Patriot ), Willard Snowden (subject of The Drifter ), farmers Karl Kuerner and Forrest Wall, and the family of Christina Olson (the woman portrayed in Christina's World ). The shallow interviews tell us little about Wyeth, only that he was a fine person, highly independent, not dogmatic, etc. The author also offers a puerile account of his tracking of Wyeth himself and of his wife's polite rebuffs. (September)