In this compelling, authoritative volume, Ellen Landau locates the man and the artist in the continuum of his times, and recreates the social and cultural milieu of NewYork in the 1940s and 1950s from which Pollock's work emerged. The artist's early years are chronicled from his birth in the Wild West town of Cody, Wyoming, through his troubled school years, to his arrival in NewYork and periods of rewarding study with Thomas Hart Benton, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Stanley William Hayter. Though he became withdrawn and abrasive, and was often drunk, Pollock nonetheless attracted many other mentors during this time, most importantly of all, Lee Krasner. A fellow artist (and later his wife), her knowledge of art-world thinking and conviction of Pollock's genius were essential to his development.