Gods' Man

Lynd Ward (1905–1985) was born in Chicago and studied at Columbia Teachers College in New York City and at the National Academy of Graphic Arts and Bookmaking in Leipzig, Germany. He began working as a book illustrator in 1927, and in 1929 published this first “wordless novel,” Gods’ Man. He eventually published five more such works, as well as illustrations for more than 100 other books, plus drawings, lithographs, watercolors, and children’s stories. Gods’ Man is credited as the first American wordless novel. It tells a story about a struggling young artist who makes a pact with a mysterious stranger and acquires a magic brush. He experiences success, then betrayal and rejection, then regeneration and happiness before the old bargain comes back to claim him.