“The Runaway”

ROCKWELL CONTRASTED THE WORLDS of childhood fantasy and adult authority on many occasions but never more effectively than in this 1958 Post cover. The fact that the state trooper, like the short-order cook behind the counter, is clearly in sympathy with the boy's dream of a life on the open road does not diminish from this since the contrast is established in visual terms.

The cop's broad shoulders, uniform and sidearm are set off against the boy's slender physique, white tee shirt and pathetic travel kit. Although Rockwell has dealt sympathetically with all the ages of man, his deepest and most spontaneous sympathies have always been with the world of the child.

The child's imagination knows no bounds, and it is this to which Rockwell seems to respond. He does not shrink from dealing with the responsibilities of adulthood, but, in Rockwell's universe, the child is never far away. In this instance the cop and the cook have no difficulty placing themselves in the boy's position.