Back Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts (boxed set)

Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts (boxed set)

Edited by Art Spiegelman

“For the experience of seeing all [Ward’s] wordless novels as they were meant to be read, The Library of America set is essential.“—The New Yorker

Overview
Table of Contents

Overview

Interviews | News New York exhibition showcases Lynd Ward as both pioneering graphic novelist and master illustrator
December 29, 2015

Interviews August 2010: Editor Art Spiegelman on Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts
December 28, 2015

From the eve of the Great Depression to the start of World War II, Lynd Ward (1905–1985) observed the troubled American scene through the double lens of a politically committed storyteller and a visionary graphic artist. His medium—the wordless “novel in woodcuts”—was his alone, and he quickly brought it from bold iconographic infancy to subtle and still unrivalled mastery.

Gods’ Man (1929), the audaciously ambitious work that made Ward’s reputation, is a modern morality play, an allegory of the deadly bargain a striving young artist often makes with life. Madman’s Drum (1930), a multigenerational saga worthy of Faulkner, traces the legacy of violence haunting a family whose stock in trade is human souls. Wild Pilgrimage (1932), perhaps the most accomplished of these early books, is a study in the brutalization of an American factory worker whose heart can still respond to beauty but whose mind is twisted in rage against the system and its shackles.

Prelude to a Million Years (1933) is a dark meditation on art, inspiration, and the disparity between the ideal and the real. Song Without Words (1936), a protest against the rise of European fascism, asks if ours is a world still fit for the human soul. Vertigo (1937), Ward’s undisputed masterpiece, is an epic novel on the theme of the individual caught in the downward spiral of a sinking American economy. Its characters include a young violinist, her luckless fiancé, and an elderly business magnate who—movingly, and without ever becoming a political caricature—embodies the social forces determining their fate.

The images reproduced in this volume are taken from prints pulled from the original woodblocks or first-generation electrotypes. The Library of America is proud to bring Ward’s masterworks to a new generation of readers, together with nine illuminating essays about his craft, including those he wrote for the long out-of-print Storyteller Without Words, a 1974 retrospective. Art Spiegelman contributes an introductory essay, “Reading Pictures,” that defines Ward’s towering achievement in that most demanding of graphic-story forms, the wordless novel in woodcuts.

View the opening sequence of Gods’ Man (PDF).

Lynd Ward was born in 1905 in Chicago, Illinois. He is the author of six novels in woodcuts and three picture books for children, and the illustrator of some two hundred other books. Storyteller Without Words, an autobiographical monograph on his work in wood engraving, was published in 1974. He died in 1985.

Art Spiegelman, volume editor, is the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic memoir Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. His most recent book of comics is Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!

Both Lynd Ward volumes are printed on an acid-free paper stock with a light coating for optimal illustration reproduction and bound in brick-red cloth stamped to match other titles in the LOA series. In addition, each Smyth-sewn volume includes a ribbon and a uniquely designed jacket featuring artwork by Lynd Ward.

Project support for these volumes was provided in honor of Marjorie J. Berkley.
Table of Contents

“Reading Pictures,” by Art Spiegelman

Gods’ Man

Madman’s Drum

Wild Pilgrimage

Prelude to a Million Years

Song Without Words

Vertigo

Essays by Lynd Ward
The Way of Wood Engraving
On Gods’ Man
On Madman’s Drum
On Wild Pilgrimage
On Prelude to a Million Years
The Equinox Idea
On Song Without Words
On Vertigo
The Book and the Woodblock

60.00 List Price: $80.00 (Save: 25%) Free shipping on orders $50 and over

Or buy from our partners

Phone orders: 1-800-964-5778 Request product #210014

ISBN: 978-1-59853-082-7 1526 pages

LOA books are distributed worldwide by Penguin Random House

Books Included

Related Books

John Kenneth Galbraith: The Affluent Society & Other Writings 1952–1967 LOA N°208

James T. Farrell: Studs Lonigan: A Trilogy LOA N°148

John Dos Passos: U.S.A. LOA N°85

John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath and Other Writings 1936–1941 LOA N°86

John Steinbeck: Novels and Stories 1932–1937 LOA N°72

Library of America

CURATOR

A champion of America’s great writers and timeless works, Library of America guides readers in finding and exploring the exceptional writing that reflects the nation’s history and culture.

Learn More

PUBLISHER

From poetry, novels, and memoirs to journalism, crime writing, and science fiction, the more than 300 volumes published by Library of America are widely recognized as America’s literary canon.

Browse our books Subscribe

NON-PROFIT

With contributions from donors, Library of America preserves and celebrates a vital part of our cultural heritage for generations to come.

Support our mission

Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts (boxed set)

Books Included

Related Books

Get 10% off your first Library of America purchase.