In America, artists' works are not only shown in museums, they are often displayed on magazine covers. Norman Rockwell produced cover paintings for the Saturday Evening Post, a major magazine of the 1910's and for many decades later. In the process he became a nationally renowned artist. His precise detail brought him great popularity. "He created a moral myth in which people were reassured of their own essential goodness," art critic Arthur C Danto told Allison Adato of Life magazine. "And that is a very powerful thing." Film director Steven Spielberg remarked to Adato, "Growing up, we always subscribed to...
the public loved his paintings and many were purchased for prices averaging $20,000. Thomas Buechner wrote in Life, "It is difficult for the art world to take the people's choice very seriously."

Rockwell himself said to Walton, "I could never be satisfied with just the approval of the critics, and, boy, I've certainly had to be satisfied without it." In 1975, at the age of 81, Rockwell was still painting, working on his fifty-sixth Boys Scout calendar. In 1976 the city of Stockbridge celebrated a Norman Rockwell Day. On November 8, 1978, Rockwell died in his home in Stockbridge.