Grant Wood
Plaid Sweater, 1931
Oil on Masonite
Picture This
Like my other novels, many of the characters and scenes were inspired by images. While writing Button Down, I kept a postcard of this Grant Wood painting called Plaid Sweater on my wall as Ned. Ned was scruffier than this, and did not have a genuine football, but this is how Ned imagines himself. Read about the actual boy in the painting here.
Football Then and Now
I discovered that Kinnick Stadium, formerly known as Iowa Stadium, the home of the University of Iowa Hawkeye football team, was built in 1929, the fall after The Luck of the Buttons takes place. That fact set my imagination in motion for another Button tale, this time Ned's story. Researching football in the 1920s in general and in Iowa specifically was a lot of fun. Here are just a few of the photos I found:
