How to Make It as a Mainstream Magazine Illustrator; or, J. C. Leyendecker and Norman Rockwell Go to War

How do mainstream magazine illustrators organize popular sentiment in moments of crisis? This article meditates on this question by looking at how J. C. Leyendecker and Norman Rockwell addressed the American home front experience during World War II in cover designs for the Saturday Evening Post. That the magazine would ultimately fire Leyendecker and make Rockwell its lead cover artist during this period raises questions about the lifespan of aesthetic languages in the magazine context, draws attention to the heterosexist social structures underpinning Rockwell's ascent, and invites reconsideration of the cultural impact and import of Leyendecker's understudied production.