{"id":2766,"date":"2012-12-11T15:29:22","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T20:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/library\/?p=2766"},"modified":"2013-01-24T19:57:02","modified_gmt":"2013-01-25T00:57:02","slug":"o-brother-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/library\/2012\/12\/11\/o-brother-man\/","title":{"rendered":"O Brother Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>O Brother Man: The Art and Life of Lynd Ward<\/p>\n

Lynd Ward was an artist known for both his award winning work as an illustrator and his groundbreaking work as the creator of six published novels told entirely through woodcut prints.<\/p>\n

Born in Chicago, Illinois at the turn of the 20th century, Ward was the son Harry F. Ward who served two decades as the American Civil Liberties Union’s first chairman. \u00a0His father\u2019s influence is obvious in the decidedly \u201cleft\u201d social themes explored in the artist\u2019s illustrated narratives.<\/p>\n

Regarded by many as the father of the American \u201cgraphic novel\u201d, Ward\u2019s experimentation with the use of sequential images as the sole means of conveying narrative provided early examples of the importance of considered economy and accessible archetype in illustrated long form storytelling.<\/p>\n

Over the course of his life, Ward illustrated many children\u2019s books including the popular \u201cThe Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge\u201d by Hildegarde Swift (1942). \u00a0He also received the Caldecott Medal for writing and illustrating \u201cThe Biggest Bear\u201d (1953).<\/p>\n

His significance as an artist was recently recognized with the publication of the two\u00a0volume \u201cLynd Ward: Six novels in Woodcuts\u201d (2007) and the release of the 2012 film \u201cO Brother Man: The Art and Life of Lynd Ward\u201d by Michael Maglaras. \u00a0\u201cSix Novels\u201d and \u201cO Brother Man\u201d are both available in the Ladd Library.<\/p>\n

\u201cSix Novels\u201d reprints each of Ward\u2019s previously individually published woodcut novels including his first and best known Faustian story \u201cGods’ Man\u201d (1929). \u00a0This two volume set is presented with an excellent introduction by award winning writer and illustrator Art Spiegelman. \u00a0Spiegelman’s\u00a0highly\u00a0recommended seminal work \u201cMaus: A Survivor’s Tale\u201d (1991) serves as an example of contemporary adult storytelling through images and words.\u00a0 Two highlights from his collection of covers from “The New Yorker Magazine” are his visual commentary on the tax season (April 17, 1995) and his haunting post-9\/11 image depicting the unoccupied negative space of the missing World Trade Center towers (September 24, 2001).\u00a0 “Maus” and archives of “The New Yorker” are both available through Ladd Library.<\/p>\n

“O Brother Man” serves as a Ward biography and display of selected works. \u00a0Much of the \u201ccolor\u201d in the film is provided by scenes from an extensive interview with the artist\u2019s daughter Robin Ward.\u00a0 Her anecdote about her father making preliminary sketches of the \u201cLittle Red Lighthouse\u201d is one great example.<\/p>\n

In addition to the film and two\u00a0volume collection of novels, Ladd Library also holds first editions of Ward\u2019s first two novels: \u201cGods’ Man\u201d (1929) and the more ambitious (but less successful) \u201cMad Man\u2019s Drum\u201d (1930). \u00a0These rare books are available for in-building viewing from the\u00a0Muskie Archives. \u00a0This provides a terrific opportunity to see these rare books as they were first issued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lynd Ward’s significance as an artist is recognized with the release of the 2012 film \u201cO Brother Man: The Art and Life of Lynd Ward\u201d by Michael Maglaras.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":338,"featured_media":2980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[5,18,1,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","category-collection-highlights","category-library","category-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/338"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2766"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2775,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2766\/revisions\/2775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}