FORGOTTEN BOOK: GODS’ MAN by Lynd Ward, 1929

FORGOTTEN BOOK: GODS’ MAN by Lynd Ward, Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith, 1929

This is the 69th in my series of Forgotten Books.

GODS’ MAN is a book I dearly love and have a hard time telling other people why. Back when I first got married, Sandi and I visited one of her friends, the artist Mondell Rogers. While we were walking his studio he showed me a print he had recently acquired, “Cup of Sky” by Lynd Ward. He said it was an example of Ward’s wood engraving style. Wood engraving, to me, is to wood cuts as my scribbles are to Picasso. This was exquisite work. Mondell said he had gotten it from a gallery in Lubbock and that they had several pieces for sale. We eventually bought two pieces, including “Cup of Sky”. They still hang in the hallway.

It was then that I remembered that I had seen this work before. In the early 1970’s Harry N. Abrams, the art book publisher had issued a volume entitled STORYTELLER WITHOUT WORDS. This volume contained all six of Ward’s wordless novels, told entirely through wood engravings, the earliest form of graphic novel. I had wanted the book but it was $35 or so, back when a new hardback was maybe $5. The nearest equivalent would be like a $200 volume now. So I had to pass.

Comes the mid 1980’s and I found a copy of GODS’ MAN in a rare book shop in Dallas. It was a very nice first edition and it was $75. I could not afford it but I bought it anyway. It was an amazing story, told in over 140 pictures. The struggle of a young artist who sells his soul for a magic brush and finds that the success achieved in this way is hollow. Abandoning the brush he finds love, contentment and happiness but eventually must pay for his early deeds when Death comes to collect. A simple but effective tale. It should have won him fame and fortune. And it might have, had it not been published in October 1929, the week the stock market crashed.

Ward went on to do six such novels and one young adult book without words. His style remained strong throughout his life. He won numerous awards including the Caldecott Medal for the best illustrated book for Children, the Library of Congress Award for wood engraving and others. He illustrated numerous Newberry Award winning books. In 2010 the Library of America published a two volume set LYND WARD: Six Novels in Woodcuts, with a new chronology of Ward’s life and an introduction by Art Spiegelman containing GODS’ MAN, MADMAN’S DRUM, WILD PILGRIMAGE, PRELUDE TO A MILLION YEARSM, SONG WITHOUT WORDS, and VERTIGO. It is available as a boxed set and the reproduction quality is quite high. The set was nominated an Eisner Award for Best Archival Collection/Project – Comic Books (which it lost) but Lynd Ward was named to the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame. And damn near about time.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.