God's Man

WARD, Lynd. Gods’ Man. A Novel in Woodcuts. NY: Jonathan Cape [1929]. 8vo, [297]pp. Pictorial boards with black cloth spine with pictorial paper label. Black endpapers; b&w woodcuts on every other page. Edges and lower front cover a bit rubbed, half-inch tear at base of fly-leaf expertly mended, else a clean, tight copy.

First edition. The first American wordless novel, this masterwork of Caldecott Medalist Lynd Ward is considered an important pioneer of the graphic novel. The first of six “novels in woodcuts” that Ward would go on to create, this story told through 139 woodblock prints, tells the Faustian story of an artist who signs away his soul for a magic paintbrush.