"The Boardinghouse" is an account of how a diverse group of high spirited, self-assured, talented youths were able to meld in supporting one another during Vogel's first year as a student at the Chicago Art Institute's School of Fine Art during the desperate times of the great depression. The book portrays one year in the lives of eighteen young men from various parts of the country who shared similar dreams of becoming an artist.
In this Artist Community House, under the charge of Malcolm Hackett, some of the other young art students included Don Goodall, later to become Chairman of the...

Donald Vogel arrived in Dallas at the beginning of World War II after a sojourn at the Art Institute of Chicago. "The feeling of space, its clear clean atmosphere, the calm courtesy of the people and promises of growth all gave hope to a young, would-be painter. What I could not have anticipated was that there would be no gentle growth: it exploded in every direction and the money followed." Along with the wealth came East Coast art dealers who followed the oil field trails throughout Oklahoma and Texas. They brought dubious art and fake old masters, but the same growth that attracted...