About the Author... Robert William Mellberg

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I was born in 1935, grew up in Wisconsin, and for the past 60 years, have lived in Missouri. I joined the Marine Corps at age 18, was honorably discharged, returned home, and was married before I became twenty-one. My wife Rachel and I have four children, eight grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren. I graduated from Iowa State University in 1962 and began a thirty-four-year career at the McDonnell Douglas Corporation. My interests include writing, collecting and creating artwork, sculpture and genealogical research. 

In the mid-nineteen seventies, I began writing "A Grandfather's Dream of Fair Women," a book about twenty-two American illustrators that created the "Ideal American Girl" vogue. It was published in 2010. In 2012 I wrote "The Life and Works of Charles H. Twelvetrees." These books have been digitized and are available now on this website along with several original vintage collectable books that contributed to the research of the ideal American girl vogue.