Authors Emeritus: Lynd Ward

ph_LyndWardBorn in Chica­go on June 26, 1905, Lynd Ward, the son of a Methodist min­is­ter, grew up mov­ing around and liv­ing close to new immi­grants. Ward was a sick­ly baby and the fam­i­ly moved to north­ern Cana­da for sev­er­al months hop­ing his health would improve.

Upon the family’s return, Ward, now a health­i­er child, nev­er lost his bond with the wilder­ness. While at col­lege he met and mar­ried his wife, May McNeer, and left for Leipzig, Ger­many with her short­ly after graduation.

bk_BiggestBearWard’s illus­tra­tions show his respect for all peo­ple and the effects of his stay in the Cana­di­an wilder­ness. Among his books are Calde­cott Medal win­ner, The Biggest Bear (1952), The Sil­ver Pony: A Sto­ry in Pic­tures (1973), a word­less pic­ture book, sev­er­al biogra­phies of famous Amer­i­cans, and one of Mar­tin Luther. A num­ber of these books were writ­ten by his wife, May McNeer.

Among the awards received by Ward are the Regi­na Award in 1975, the Carteret Book Club award for illus­tra­tion, and oth­ers. Two New­bery win­ners were illus­trat­ed by Ward and anoth­er six books with Ward’s illus­tra­tions were named New­bery Hon­or books.

bk_GodsManWard was also an inno­v­a­tive cre­ator of books for adults. He made the first Amer­i­can word­less nov­el, Gods’ Man, which was pub­lished in 1929. He made five more such works: Mad­man’s Drum (1930), Wild Pil­grim­age (1932), Pre­lude to a Mil­lion Years (1933), Song With­out Words (1936), and Ver­ti­go (1937).

The Lynd Ward Graph­ic Nov­el Prize, spon­sored by Penn State Uni­ver­si­ty Libraries, is pre­sent­ed annu­al­ly to the best graph­ic nov­el, fic­tion or non-fic­tion, pub­lished in the pre­vi­ous cal­en­dar year by a liv­ing U.S. or Cana­di­an cit­i­zen or resident.

Lynd Ward died in 1985.

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