William Cumming began as a self-taught artist who grew up in Tukwila, a small town outside Seattle. In 1937, at the age of twenty, he met Morris Graves, who was at that time working in Seattle for the Federal Art project of the Works Progress Administration. Through Graves he soon became part of the circle of friends who came to be known as the Northwest School of artists: Mark Tobey, then nearing fifty, the patriarchal leader of the group; Kenneth Callahan and his wife Margaret, a writer and critic who became Cumming's particular mentor; Guy Anderson, Lubin Petric, and others. He has taught for many years at the Art Institute of Seattle and Cornish College of the Arts.

The ThirtiesI Call On an Old FriendI Remember an Earlier DayAnd Still EarlierIndian Summer, 1937What Was It?Artists, 1937I Meet MorrisThe Town CrierThe Group of TwelveTo Think About It AllI Go to DinnerI Step Through the DoorNew Friends ArriveBreakfast with MorrisI Look at Kenneth's MuralI Meet Two Friends in the LibraryDinner at Ken and Margaret'sParis Fifteen Miles from TukwilaFriendsSour NotesA Portrait and What Happened to ItStorm CloudsThe Bohemian LifeGuy AndersonTrip to La ConnerVoyage to the SouthMarkJohn Cage and the Cornish RiotLubin's AnabasisThe Northwest SchoolThe RockThe PeopleArt Project SketchesHans BokFaye ChongRansom PatrickDick Correll and Wellington GrovesJacob ElshinJulius TwohySalvador GonzalesThe Spokane Art ProjectEmma StimsonGeorge MantorJim StevensMrs. Harold DavisTed AbramsIvar HaglundWalter IsaacsMalcolm RobertsBetty MacDonaldDr. Richard E. FullerBernard FlageolleJohnny DavisBetty BowenThe Artist