Members of Norman Rockwell's family have launched an online petition urging the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts to stop selling a biography of the illustrator they say is fraudulent.The Change.org petition started by Rockwell's granddaughter and son says Deborah Solomon's biography American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell would be libelous if Rockwell were alive. The family says Solomon's claims that Rockwell's work was homoerotic or that he might have been a pedophile because children were frequently featured in his illustrations have been debunked. Abigail Rockwell has criticized the book since its 2013 publication, including during an interview with WAMC.
“I think the suggestion of pedophilia blows the credibility of the book out of the water,” said Abigail Rockwell in 2013.
Solomon has defended her book saying she wasn’t making claims about the artist’s behavior. The museum has maintained it’s a center of education and Solomon’s biography is one in a long line of books on Rockwell.
