From Becky’s Book Reviews, the first stop on Susanna Reich’s blog tour to support her terrific new book, Painting the Wild Frontier: The Art and Adventures of George Catlin:

How did you go about choosing which paintings to include—especially which full-color paintings to include?

I used a process of elimination. For several months, there were about two hundred illustrations laid out in chronological order on my dining room table. They were on the piano bench, too. And the bookcase. And the coffee table. My family was very understanding. One by one, I removed the pictures that didn’t seem essential. I was really attached to some of them. It was hard to let them go.