Lynd Kendall Ward was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

 and storyteller, and son of Methodist minister and prominent political organizer Harry F. Ward

Harry F. Ward

Harry F. Ward was an American Methodist minister and left-wing activist. He was the first chairman of the ACLU, leading the group from its creation in 1920 until 1940. Ward was a prominent defender of Soviet Communism, although he didn't label himself as a Communist; this ultimately led to his...

. He illustrated some 200 juvenile and adult books. Ward was best known for his wood engraving

Wood engraving

Wood engraving is a technique in printmaking where the "matrix" worked by the artist is a block of wood. It is a variety of woodcut and so a relief printing technique, where ink is applied to the face of the block and printed by using relatively low pressure. A normal engraving, like an etching,...

 and is considered one of the founders of the American graphic novel

Graphic novel

A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...

 but he also worked in watercolor, oil

Oil

An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....

, brush

Brush

A brush is a tool with bristles, wire or other filaments, used for cleaning, grooming hair, make up, painting, surface finishing and for many other purposes. It is one of the most basic and versatile tools known to mankind, and the average household may contain several dozen varieties...

 and ink

Ink

Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments and/or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush, or quill...

, lithography

Lithography

Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...

 and mezzotint

Mezzotint

Mezzotint is a printmaking process of the intaglio family, technically a drypoint method. It was the first tonal method to be used, enabling half-tones to be produced without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple...

.

Life

Ward spent his childhood in Illinois, Massachusetts and New Jersey. When he was in the first grade, Ward discovered that his last name spelled "draw" backwards, and decided that he wanted to be an artist. He studied fine arts at Columbia Teachers' College

Teachers College, Columbia University

Teachers College, Columbia University is a graduate school of education located in New York City, New York...

 in New York. There he met his future wife, May McNeer

May McNeer

May Yonge McNeer Ward was an American journalist and author of a variety of subjects, many of which were illustrated by her husband, Lynd Ward, whom she married a week after his graduation from Columbia University in 1926. In 1975 the two were jointly awarded the Regina Medalmany ljfdshd;ssh;Hg...

, and they were married shortly after their graduation in 1926. The first year of their marriage was spent in Europe, where Ward studied printmaking and book design at the National Academy of Graphic Arts in Leipzig, Germany. While browsing in a bookstore in Leipzig, Ward came upon a book by the Belgian engraver Frans Masereel

Frans Masereel

Frans Masereel was a Flemish painter and graphic artist who worked mainly in France. He is known especially for his woodcuts. His greatest work is generally said to be the wordless graphic novel Mon Livre d'Heures . He completed over 20 other wordless novels in his career...

 which told a story in woodcuts. This was the spark which inspired Ward to create his first graphic novel, Gods' Man, published in October 1929, the same week the stock market crashed. It was the first novel-length story told in wood engravings to be published in the United States. He went on to publish six graphic novels in total, of which Vertigo was the last and the most ambitious.

In addition to woodcuts, Ward also worked in watercolor, oil, brush and ink, lithography and mezzotint. Ward illustrated over a hundred children's books, several of which were collaborations with his wife, May McNeer. Starting in 1938, Ward became a frequent illustrator of the Heritage Limited Editions Club's series of classic works. He was well known for the political themes of his artwork, often addressing labor and class issues. In 1932 he founded Equinox Cooperative Press. He was a member of the Society of Illustrators

Society of Illustrators

The Society of Illustrators is a professional society based in New York City. Founded in 1901, the mission of the Society is to promote the art and appreciation of illustration, as well as its history...

, the Society of American Graphic Arts, and the National Academy of Design

National Academy of Design

The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in New York City as the National Academy of Design – known simply as the "National Academy" – is an honorary association of American artists founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E...

. Ward retired to his home in Reston, Virginia

Reston, Virginia

Reston is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, within the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The population was 58,404, at the 2010 Census and 56,407 at the 2000 census...

, in 1979. He died on June 28, 1985, two days after his 80th birthday.

In celebration of the art and life of this American printmaker and illustrator, independent filmmaker Michael Maglaras of 217 Films has begun work on a new film titled “O Brother Man: The Art and Life of Lynd Ward.” Shooting began in June 2011 and the documentary, projected for release in March 2012, will feature an interview with the artist’s daughter Robin Ward Savage, as well as more than 150 works from all periods of Ward's career.

Awards

He won a number of awards, including a Library of Congress Award for wood engraving, the Caldecott Medal

Caldecott Medal

The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children , a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published that year. The award was named in honor of nineteenth-century English...

, and a Rutgers University

Rutgers University

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...

 award for Distinguished Contribution to Children's Literature. He illustrated six Newbery Honor Medal books and two Newbery Medal

Newbery Medal

The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association . The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The award has been given since 1922. ...

 books. In 2011, Ward was listed as a Judges' Choice for The Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame.

Novels in woodcuts

Ward is known for his wordless novels told entirely through dramatic wood engraving

Wood engraving

Wood engraving is a technique in printmaking where the "matrix" worked by the artist is a block of wood. It is a variety of woodcut and so a relief printing technique, where ink is applied to the face of the block and printed by using relatively low pressure. A normal engraving, like an etching,...

s. Ward's first work, Gods' Man (1929), uses a blend of Art Deco

Art Deco

Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...

 and Expressionist styles to tell the story of an artist's struggle with his craft, his seduction and subsequent abuse by money and power, and his escape to innocence. Ward, in employing the concept of the wordless pictorial narrative, acknowledged as his predecessors the European artists Frans Masereel

Frans Masereel

Frans Masereel was a Flemish painter and graphic artist who worked mainly in France. He is known especially for his woodcuts. His greatest work is generally said to be the wordless graphic novel Mon Livre d'Heures . He completed over 20 other wordless novels in his career...

 and Otto Nückel

Otto Nückel

Otto Nückel was a German painter, graphic designer, illustrator and cartoonist. He best known as one the 20th century's pioneer wordless novelist, along with Frans Masereel and Lynd Ward.- Life :...

. Released the week of the 1929 stock market crash

Wall Street Crash of 1929

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout...

, Gods' Man would continue to exert influence well beyond the Depression era, becoming an important source of inspiration for Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg

Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...

.

Ward produced six wood engraving novels over the next eight years, including:

• Gods' Man (1929)
• Madman's Drum (1930)
• Wild Pilgrimage (1932)
• Prelude to a Million Years (1933)
• Song Without Words (1936)
• Vertigo (1937)

Ward left one more wordless novel partially completed at the time of his death in 1985. The 26 completed wood engravings (out of a planned total of 44) were published in a limited edition in 2001, under the title Lynd Ward's Last, Unfinished, Wordless Novel.

He also produced a wordless story for children, The Silver Pony, which is told entirely in black, white and shades of grey painted illustrations; it was published in 1973.

Gods' Man

Gods' Man is a novel in five parts, published in 1929.

• Synopsis

(1) An Artist, after returning from a harrowing sea escapade with paintings of the waves and sun, gives his last coin to a one legged beggar by the roadside. He then stops for a bowl of soup at an inn and attempts to pay with one of the paintings, which provokes the wrath of the owner, until a mysterious Stranger, dressed entirely in black, takes the painting, paying an exorbitant amount to the owner. He then offers the Artist a Brush, an easily recognized long brush that was used by the great masters of the ages (shown in montage) and that makes any art made with it (presumably) a masterwork. The Artist is offered a contract, which he eagerly signs.

(2) In the city, the author begins painting with the brush in an empty square, drawing gradually a huge crowd. An auctioneer strikes a handshake deal with the artist, then bids it for an extremely high amount. The artist is given a fancy new tie, a mistress, and a large amount of cash.

(3) The artist falls in love with the mistress, whom he is using as a model, but she reveals wordlessly that she only wants him for his money. Distraught, he leaves and wanders the city canyonlands, seeing everybody he meets as the auctioneer and the Mistress. He attempts to strangle the hallucination in rage, but is beaten by a cop and impounded. The auctioneer takes the remainder of his work and money back. At the last minute, the Artist uses that spiffy tie to strangle a prison guard bringing him food and escape. He now runs from a mob into the hills far from the city, and collapses in a haystack.

(4) He is rescued by the Girl, who is herding goats when she finds him and nurses him back to health. They quickly fall in love and tour a series of natural wonders. After an unclear amount of time, he goes to her, and assists in the birth of his Child. He is exuberant and full of praise at this point.

(5) The Artist, the Girl, and the Child are happy, skipping gaily through fields of heather. At one idyllic family scene, with the gender-unspecified child learning to paint from his/her father, the Mysterious stranger somehow arrives and calls the artist to finish the contract, which was assumedly a portrait of him. The Artist gladly obliges, they go to the hilly crests for the best lighting. During the painting, the Stranger removes his black mask. The Artist has a nasty shock slash heart attack, and appears to fall into the black abyss between the hills. The camera moves onto the stranger, and he is Death, with a skull for a face, who has tricked the Artist into a Faustian Bargain

Deal with the Devil

Deal With The Devil is the fifth studio album by the American heavy metal band Lizzy Borden released in 2000 .A return to form, featuring a cover by Todd McFarlane.2 covers were recorded...

.

Other works

In 1930 Ward's wood engravings were used to illustrate Alec Waugh

Alec Waugh

Alexander Raban Waugh , was a British novelist, the elder brother of the better-known Evelyn Waugh and son of Arthur Waugh, author, literary critic, and publisher...

's travel book Hot Countries; in 1936 an edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was published with illustrations by Ward. His work on children's books included his 1953 Caldecott Medal

Caldecott Medal

The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children , a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published that year. The award was named in honor of nineteenth-century English...

 winning book The Biggest Bear

The Biggest Bear

The Biggest Bear is a children's picture book by Lynd Ward, first published in 1952. It was illustrated using opaque watercolors, and won the prestigious Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1953....

, and his work on Esther Forbes

Esther Forbes

Esther Louise Forbes was an American novelist, historian andchildren's writer who received the Pulitzer Prize and the Newbery Medal.-Life:...

' Johnny Tremain

Johnny Tremain

Johnny Tremain is a 1944 children's novel by Esther Forbes set in Boston prior to and during the outbreak of the American Revolution. The novel's themes include apprenticeship, courtship, sacrifice, human rights, and the growing tension between Whigs and Tories as conflict nears...

.

Ward illustrated the 1942 children's book The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge, with text by Hildegarde Swift.

Ward's work included an awareness of the racial injustice to be found in the United States. This is first apparent in the lynching scenes from Wild Pilgrimage and appears again in his drawings for North Star Shining: A Pictorial History of the American Negro, by Hildegarde Hoyt Swift, published in 1947. Ward uses African American characters, as well as several different Native ones in his book The Silver Pony.

In 1941 his illustration's were used in Great Ghost Stories of the World:The Haunted Omnibus, edited by Alexander Laing

In 1972 Harry N. Abrams published Storyteller Without Words, a book that included Ward's six novels plus an assortment of his illustrations from other books. Ward himself broke his silence and wrote brief prologues to each of his works. In 2010, the Library of America

Library of America

The Library of America is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature.- Overview and history :Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LoA has published over 200 volumes by a wide range of authors from Mark Twain to Philip...

 published Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts, with a new chronology of Ward's life and an introduction by Art Spiegelman

Art Spiegelman

Art Spiegelman is an American comics artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic book memoir, Maus. His works are published with his name in lowercase: art spiegelman.-Biography:Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to Polish Jews...

.

External links

• Bio at Rutgers University Libraries
• "Silent Beauty" by Christopher Capozzola, In These Times
  In These Times
  In These Times is a politically progressive monthly magazine of news and opinion published by the Institute for Public Affairs in Chicago...
  
  , October 14, 2005
• Columbus Museum of Art Lynd Ward's work Company Town (click on picture for larger version)
• http://www.bpib.com/lyndward.htm
• Guide to the Lynd Ward papers at the University of Oregon
• Lynd Ward's illustrations for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
• www.artistarchive.com A searchable catalogue listing of over 600 prints by this artist, many with images.
• Comic artist and historian Art Spiegelman interviewed about the significance of Lynd Ward