FRANKENSTEIN: OR THE MODERN PROMETHEUS
Signed by Lynd Ward
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Illustrations by Lynd Ward
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, with Illustrations by Lynd Ward: FRANKENSTEIN: OR THE MODERN PROMETHEUS. New York: Harrison Smith & Robert Haas, 1934. First edition. Octavo. Full publishers tan cloth with paper labels on the front board and the backstrip, with publisher's black top stain. ix + 259 pp. Illustrated with 15 full page wood engravings, and multiple vignettes. SIGNED by Lynd Ward on half-title page. Cream cloth dust spotted and sunned at spine. Spine crown badly snagged and spine heel less so. Spine cloth splitting along front top shoulder. Former owner tiny instamp to front free endpaper. Illustrated label from slipcase retained and laid in. A good copy somewhat enhanced by the Illustrators’ signature.
Nearly 200 years ago, a teenager dreamt of a scientist who experimented with restoring life to the dead. Encouraged by her literary-minded friends, she expanded her fantasy into a gripping story that became the epitome of the Gothic novel. This magnificently illustrated edition features the complete wood engravings by graphic artist Lynd Ward. A master of woodcut technique, Ward combined elements of Art Deco and German Expressionism in his images. His unusual perspectives and dramatic light-and-dark contrasts offer the perfect complement to Shelley's moody masterpiece.
“Ward produced six wordless novels between 1929 and 1937, and although Ward continued to be an illustrator in high demand for the rest of his life, these early works find him at the absolute height of his creative and artistic powers.” [Ken Saunders].
Lynd Ward (1905 - 1985) studied theory of design, art history and teaching methods at Columbia University. He spent a year at the State Academy for Graphic Arts in Leipzig, Germany studying with Hans Mueller, Alois Kolp and George Mathey. He illustrated many of the classics published by the Limited Editons and Heritage Book Clubs.
Ward is known for his wordless novels told entirely through dramatic wood engravings. Ward's first work, God's Man (1929), uses a blend of Art Deco 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 and Otto Nuckel. Released the week of the 1929 stock market crash, the book was the first of six wood engraving Ward novels produced over the next eight years, including: Madman's Drum (1930); Wild Pilgrimage (1932); Prelude to a Million Years (1933); Song Without Words (1936); and Vertigo (1937).
He was a member of the Society of Illustrators and The Society of American Graphic Arts. He won many awards including the Caldecott Medal, the Library of Congress Award and the Limited Editions Club SIlver Medal. He retired in 1974.