Lynd Ward: A Life in Art

Wood engraving, 212 x 147 mm, ca. 1963(?), signed at lower right.

Wood engraving, 262 x 203 mm, 1945, signed at lower right. Executed for submission upon the artist's election to the National Academy of Design.

Gouache drawing on Board for Ward's The Biggest Bear (Houghton Mifflin, 1952), one of the most famous of the author's works for children and the one for which he received the Caldecott Award.

Crayon, ink, and gouache on board portrait of Mark Twain, an illustration for May McNeer's America's Mark Twain (Houghton Mifflin, 1962).

May, 1976.
Volume 2, number 2, with 10 articles devoted to various aspects of Ward's life and work.

Pencil on paper, sketch for the Cape and Smith promotional portrait.

Wood engraving, 153 x 102 mm, ca. 1930, signed at lower right, one of an edition of 100 copies printed from the original block.

1921 or 1922.

At the family vacation home in Canada, probably taken during the summer of 1927.

Ink and gouache drawing on board for Ward's The Silver Pony (Houghton Mifflin, 1973), a story for children told entirely in pictures.

A pair of letters from young autograph collectors, occasioned by reading Ward's The Biggest Bear.

Autograph collecting on a higher level: two letters (21 May and 10 June 1968) from Lynda Johnson Robb to Ward about inscribing a copy of The Biggest Bear.

Lynd Ward studied art at Columbia University, where he became editor of the Columbia Jester in 1925-1926, and at the Academy in Leipzig, where he was a special student in the graphic arts.

The December, 1925, and February, 1926, issues of the Columbia Jester, both with cover illustrations by Ward.

250 x 353 mm, 13/21 copies, signed at lower right. Done in Leipzig, ca. 1927.

150 x 214 mm, 1/50 copies, signed at lower right. Done in Leipzig, ca. 1927.

The artist's reputation in intellectual circles was "made" by the series of wood engraved narratives produced between 1929 and 1937. Over the years his work became freer, dropping first the artificial borders and later the rigid rectangular format of the block.

(Cape and Smith, 1929)
Copy 99 of the edition of 409 copies printed from the original blocks and signed by the artist. With a proof signature from section III of the story.

An early fan letter from a lady with reptiles; Ward also achieved fame in non-intellectual circles.

Rejected block for the image shown in Madman's Drum: the innocence of the young boy has been emphasized. Loaned by Penelope C. and George M. Barringer.

Madman's Drum: A Novel in Woodcuts (Cape and Smith, 1930). Unnumbered copy, of an edition of 309 copies printed from the original blocks and signed by the artist. Loaned by Penelope C. and George M. Barringer.

Wild Pilgrimage (Smith and Haas, 1932). First edition. Loaned by Penelope C. and George M. Barringer.

Song Without Words: A Book of Engravings on Wood (Random House, 1936). Copy 1083 of the edition of 1250 copies printed from the original blocks and signed by the artist. Loaned by Penelope C. and George M. Barringer.

Three of the 21 surviving original blocks for Song Without Words. Gift of the artist, 1982.

Vertigo: A Novel in Woodcuts (Random House, 1937). First edition. With a rejected block for the image shown; emphasis changed to the young man. Loaned by Penelope C. and George M. Barringer.

Ward was among the founders of the Equinox Cooperative Press, a democratically-run, craft-oriented small press that produced a series of artistically distinctive, as well as socially significant, volumes during the Depression years 1932 to 1939.

The first Equinox book (1932) was Llewellyn Powys' Now That the Gods are Dead, with four wood engravings by Ward. It was one of the AIGA "Fifty Books" of the year. Copy 230 of an edition of 400 signed by author and artist. Loaned by Penelope P. and George M. Barringer.

Card from Llewellyn Powys to ward, 11 June 1932, acknowledging Ward's titling of Powys's essay: "The title you have chosen satisfies me—I think it a good one."

Original printed prospectus for the Equinox Cooperative Press, offering subscribers discounts on a "consumer-membership plan."

Prelude to a Million Years: A Book of Wood Engravings (Equinox, 1933) was the only "woodcut novel" of Ward's released through Equinox. Copy 916 of the edition of 920 copies printed from the original blocks and signed by the artist. Loaned by Penelope C. and George M. Barringer.

Granville Hicks contributed a series of prose sketches to accompany Ward's biography-in-lithographs One of Us: The Story of John Reed (Equinox, 1935). Presentation copy from Ward to his attorney, Arthur Donigian. Loaned by Penelope C. and George M. Barringer.

The artist's rough notes for sources and ordering the lithographs in One of Us.

Carbon of copy of a letter from Thomas Mann to the Equinox Press, 6 September 1933, discussing terms and the title for Nocturnes.

Ward contributed seven lithographs to Thomas Mann's Nocturnes (Equinox, 1934), the first appearance in English of three of his short stories, produced in an edition of 1,000 copies signed by the author.

Ward's retained draft of the Equinox "Certificate of Incorporation," with his autograph corrections.

Henry Hart's A Relevant Memoir: The Story of the Equinox Cooperative Press (Three Mountains Press, 1977), with a foreword by Ward, provides a vivid account of the press's politics and progress, as well as a detailed bibliography of its output.

Ward's collaboration with his wife, May McNeer, has been a long and fruitful one spanning more than four decades in which he has illustrated books for children written by her.

Ink and gouache drawing on board for May McNeer's Give Me Freedom (Abingdon, 1964).

Four-color wood engraving, 140 x 96 mm, created as the frontispiece illustration for May McNeer's Waif Maid (Macmillan, 1930). The artist's only attempt at full color wood engraving.

Ink and gouache drawing on board for May McNeer's The Wolf of Lamb's Lane (Houghton Mifflin, 1967).

First edition of May McNeer's Stranger in the Pines (Houghton Mifflin, 1971), with illustrations by Ward. Loaned by Nicholas B. Scheetz.

First typescript with autograph revisions, 1969, of May McNeer's Stranger in the Pines, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1971 with the first five chapters dropped and the remainder much rewritten.

Watercolor painting on board, frontispiece illustration for May McNeer's Prince Bantam (Macmillan, 1929), the first book on which husband and wife collaborated.

Argentine Spanish-language text of America's Abraham Lincoln (1959), reproducing many more of Ward's illustrations than do the Burmese and Bengali versions also shown.

May McNeer's America's Abraham Lincoln (Houghton Mifflin, 1957) with illustrations by Ward. These editions, in Burmese (1959) and Bengali (1960) sponsored by the U.S. Information Service, have cover art done locally copying or based loosely on, Ward's published illustrations.

Throughout his career Ward has willingly associated himself with groups seeking to better man's lot, whether motivated by religious or materialistic reasons. He has done copious artwork "for free" and has served as an officer in numerous organizations of artists.

Wood engraved cartoon, 165 x 158 mm, 1946, signed at lower right. For the 30 December 1946 issue of New Republic. The New Year's message is obvious.

Wood engraving, 253 x 178 mm, 1946, signed at the lower right. An illustration for the 16 December 1946 issue of New Republic.

Ward did the cover art (though not the lettering ) for Cardinal Spellman's The Risen Soldier (Catechetical Guild Education Society, 1953).

Letter from Francis A. Henson, executive secretary of the National Religion and Labor Foundation, 27 October 1932, thanking Ward for agreeing to do art work for the group's bulletin and commenting on its earlier use of a piece by Art Young.

Ward contributed the cover design and lettering for Let Southern Labor Speak (1938), a publication of the Highlander Folk School, Monteagle, Tennessee: "...it gives some indication of the fight that southern workers are making to build a labor movement to end exploitation and injustice."

Ink and charcoal drawing on board for the magazine Soviet Russia Today, ca. 1942-45.

Card from Mr. and Mrs. Rockwell Kent, ca. 1945-46. Kent has added in his own hand: "Please be sure and have A.L.A. (Artists League of America ) send its blessings to these young ambassadors. Maybe your father will too."

Ward produced a number of lithographic illustrations for his father's In Place of Profit: Social Incentives in the Soviet Union (Scribner's, 1933).

Much of the artist's best known illustrative work was done for George Macy's Limited Editions Club and its Heritage Club offshoot with which Ward was associated for over 40 years.

Charcoal sketch on paper for plate five, "Pettifoggers," in Moriae Encomium: "Consequently the lawyer piles up a fortune while the theologian, having digested the whole body of divinity, sits gnawing a crust."

Erasmus's Moriae Encomium; or, The Praise of Folly (Limited Editions Club, 1943), fulfilled one of Ward's earliest ambitions: to illustrate a volume with mezzotints printed from the original plates. Loaned by Penelope C. and George M. Barringer.

Thomas Paine's Rights of Man (Limited Editions Club, 1961), illustrated by Ward with two-color lithographs. Loaned by Penelope C. and George M. Barringer.

Ink drawing on watercolor paper for an illustration for Alexander Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo (Limited Editions Club, 1941).

Proof of a Higgins Ink advertisement, 1947, claiming a share of the credit for Ward's drawings for The Count of Monte Cristo.

Ink drawing on board for the frontispiece to Book I of Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel (Heritage, 1942). This drawing was used as a full-page illustration in David Bland's A History of Book Illustration (World, 1958).

Letter from George Macy to the artist, 13 March 1942, referring to a number of Ward's commissions including the Rabelais, Hemingway, and Dumas publications.

Artist's dummy (incomplete), various media, for Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls (Limited Editions Club, 1942).

Lithograph, 177 x 148 mm, 1942, signed at lower right. Stone proof impression of an illustration for For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Ink drawing on board for a "Book of Giants," ca. 1935. This is one of only a few drawings completed for the book, which was abandoned.

Ink and charcoal drawing, an illustration for Charles Reade's The Cloister and the Hearth (Limited Editions Club, 1932). The illustrations were reproduced in photogravure.

Because he acknowledged Ward's influence on his work, Allen Ginsberg especially wanted the artist to illustrate his Moloch (Penmaen Press, 1978), a section of Howl here republished separately. One of 300 copies signed by author and artist.

Color gouache painting on board for the dust jacket of Donald Culross and Noel Peattie's A Cup of Sky (Houghton Mifflin, 1950).

Portrait of Robert E. Lee, oil on panel, 387 x 355 mm, an illustration for Henry Steele Commager's America's Robert E. Lee (Houghton Mifflin, 1951).

Offset lithographic proof, in green, of the frontispiece to Thomas Painter and Alexander Laing's The Motives of Nicholas Holtz (Farrar & Rinehart, 1936), with a copy of the book as published and a specimen (trial proof (?) in green) of the dust jacket.

Opaque watercolor drawing on board for an illustration in Hildegarde Hoyt Swift's North Star Shining (William Morrow, 1947), with a copy of the book showing the much-altered final version.

Artist's dummy, various media on board, for Henry Steele Commager's America's Robert E. Lee (Houghton Mifflin, 1951), with two finished ink and goauche drawings for the same work.

Short letter from Henry Steele Commager to the artist attempting to obtain original artwork for America's Robert E. Lee.

Promotional broadside for Carl Wilhelmson's Midsummernight (Farrar & Rinehart, 1930), reproducing six of Ward's wood-engraved illustrations for the book.

Watercolor drawing on paper, dust jacket design for William Joyce Cowen's Man with Four Lives. (Farrar & Rinehart, 1934).

Dust jacket for William Joyce Cowen's Man with Four Lives (Farrar & Rinehart, 1934). Such commission works (at $25 or $50 apiece) provided a goodly portion of the artist's income at the time.

Wood engraving, 152 x 175 mm, 1947, signed at lower right. The November image for the 1948 U.S. Pipe and Foundry Co. calendar, for which Ward provided the illustrations.

Untitled two-color engraving of Abraham Lincoln, 38 x 105 mm, ca. 1946-48. One of a series done by Ward for OWI and published in U.S.A. magazine.

Two-color wood engraving, 139 x 205 mm, 1947, signed at lower right. One of a series of portraits commissioned as cover designs for Atlantic Monthly (Maugham appeared in January, 1948.)

Ink and gouache preliminary drawing on board for the wood engraving "Giant," 1955.

Wood engraving, 405 x 142 mm, 1955, signed at lower right. Commissioned as a cover illustration for Atlantic Monthly, which finally used only head and shoulders.

Wood engraving, 620 x 292 mm, 1967, signed at lower right.

Wood engraving, 476 x 309 mm, 1974, signed at lower right center.

Wood engraving, 228 x 152 mm, 1939, signed and dated at lower right. In the artist's original presentation mat. Possibly conceived as an illustration for the periodical Social Frontier (later Frontiers of Democracy).

Wood engraving, 152 x 226 mm, 1948, signed at lower right. The print won a purchase prize of $100 in the Sixth National Exhibition of Prints at the Library of Congress, 1948.

Lithograph, 302 x 214 mm, probably 1951, signed at lower right.