Buy new:
$44.97
FREE delivery Thursday, May 16
Ships from: Amazon
Sold by: Prime Deals, USA
$44.97
FREE Returns
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$44.97 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$44.97
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon
Ships from
Amazon
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$16.99
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 11 hrs 56 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$44.97 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$44.97
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

David A. Beronä
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels Hardcover – May 1, 2008

by David A. Beronä (Author), Peter Kuper (Introduction)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 15 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$44.97","priceAmount":44.97,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"44","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"97","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"glUcOuioobtXvmwhfihqVKRNB4aCnlUOqt0uRRgBQ1XU%2F1gp%2B0g6b%2BF5%2Fqe9phj0y6rrT0v8h3%2FC5wetbCKr%2FJo5AdnUVfpwABkX7KZxkPO6P60rp6FwC%2FK4bn2AM7ZWLYR2YT%2B4SvPRp7Y3Yqxy3KqdzjpIOZ5HR3xw3YXCTq721n1zwjZe8Q%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$16.99","priceAmount":16.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"16","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"glUcOuioobtXvmwhfihqVKRNB4aCnlUOGnFqT%2BcmOAywFuvkwTqwbrCW5joY24OgLdK55CVJOMJW2kBX2qUgoIQV0EbmJJXINFoKAh%2Bmi9sMPNH%2FaOcin8jtxBH6eamM4S9tdofe9Yk0FQLsK0emL06Lfv%2BH0eRpptkpOiDo9MZU24FMvNWxNeEZ4I%2Bq7V93","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

“Wordless books” were stories from the early part of the twentieth century told in black and white woodcuts, imaginatively authored without any text. Although woodcut novels have their roots spreading back through the history of graphic arts, including block books and playing cards, it was not until the early part of the twentieth century that they were conceived and published. Despite its short-lived popularity, the woodcut novel had an important impact on the development of comic art, particularly contemporary graphic novels with a focus on adult themes.

Scholar David A. Beronä examines the history of these books and the art and influence of pioneers like Frans Masereel, Lynd Ward, Otto Nückel, William Gropper, Milt Gross, and Laurence Hyde (among others). The images are powerful and iconic, and as relevant to the world today as they were when they were first produced. Beronä places these artists in the context of their time, and in the context of ours, creating a scholarly work of important significance in the burgeoning field of comics and comics history.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    256 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Harry N. Abrams
  4. Publication date
    May 1, 2008
  5. Grade level
    8 and up
  6. Reading age
    13 years and up
  7. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches
  8. ISBN-10
    0810994690
  9. ISBN-13
    978-0810994690
  10. See all details
Next page
All the Little Raindrops: A Novel
"All the Little Raindrops: A Novel" by Mia Sheridan for $10.39
The chilling story of the abduction of two teenagers, their escape, and the dark secrets that, years later, bring them back to the scene of the crime. | Learn more

Frequently bought together

Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels
$44.97
Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by Prime Deals, USA and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
+
The Sun, The Idea & Story Without Words: Three Graphic Novels (Dover Fine Art, History of Art)
$12.39
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
One of these items ships sooner than the other.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David A. Beronä is a member of the visiting faculty for the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont. A recognized scholar on woodcut novels and wordless books, Beronä is also the library director at Plymouth State University, New Hampshire and a reviewer and contributor to International Journal of Comic Art, Print Quarterly, and Library Journal. He lives in Gilmanton, New Hampshire.

Peter Kuper is an accomplished illustrator whose work appears regularly in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, and MAD Magazine.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harry N. Abrams; Reprint edition (May 1, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0810994690
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0810994690
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 13 years and up
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 8 and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.18 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 15 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
David A. Beronä

David A. Beronä

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

David A. Beronä is a woodcut-novel historian, author of Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels (2008) and a 2009 Harvey Awards nominee. He is the Dean of the Library and Academic Support Services at Plymouth State University, New Hampshire, and a member of the visiting faculty at the Center for Cartoon Studies, White River Junction, Vermont.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
15 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Paula Mastroberti
5.0 out of 5 stars From Paula, Brazil
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2012
Verified Purchase
The book arrived in excellent conditions and it's beautiful! It's a quite good achievement for researchers in graphic novels and for everyone who likes comics.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Bruce Benjamin
5.0 out of 5 stars Graphic Novel
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2010
Verified Purchase
The book was excellent! Fabulous binding and printing; one of the best I've ever seen. Service was very good and the product was packaged well. This was the best possible On-Line experience.
Helpful
 Report
Paulo Waisberg
4.0 out of 5 stars A list of books
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2010
Verified Purchase
This is a list of several wordless books from the first half of the twentieth century. It gives some historical background and then lists about a dozen of the most influential authors and their most important work.

I felt odd that you have a kind of long description of their wordless books and few selected images of each...I was looking for lots of drawings and a lot less text so I am a bit disappointed, also the selection is very heterogeneous in quality.

On the good side, it is a beautiful hard-cover book with good satin paper and the reproductions are very well done. If you're looking for full stories I recommend you to google the authors to choose the ones you like most and then buy their work. You can find most of the reprints here at Amazon, what makes this book a bit redundant and pointless.
8 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Karl Janssen
3.0 out of 5 stars Oddly enough, could use more words and fewer pictures
Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2013
In the early 20th century, a few innovative artists created visionary pictorial novels composed entirely of illustrations. The undisputed masters of the genre were the Belgian woodcut artist Frans Masereel and the American wood engraver Lynd Ward. These two artists, and a small group of followers inspired by their work, created wordless narratives of exceptional artistic and literary quality, which served as the precursors to the graphic novel as we know it today. In this 2008 study of the subject, David A. Beronä examines the work of eleven artists whose books were published from 1918 to 1951. In recent years, no other scholar has done as much to draw attention to and bring deserved respect to these influential works of art than Beronä. If anyone is qualified to write the definitive history of this art form, it's him. Unfortunately, this isn't it.

This book contains less than 45 pages of text. Chapter one, entitled "Historical Background," is only two and a half pages long. Each artist gets about two paragraphs of biographical information, with the exception of Masereel and Ward, who maybe get a page each. 90 percent of the text consists of Beronä summarizing the plots of the books, complete with spoilers. For each work, Beronä's synopsis is supported by roughly ten percent of each book's illustrations, from which he makes points about the artist's technique and choice of imagery. There are a few cases where he makes some insightful comments in regard to historical context, but mostly he's not telling you anything you wouldn't figure out from looking at the original works themselves. If you are interested enough in this art form to purchase a book like this, wouldn't you rather get the reprint editions of these wordless novels and "read" them yourself, rather than be told second-hand everything that takes place within their covers?

You can't go wrong with a book full of these stunning and powerful images, and they are reproduced beautifully. But the question is, how much of an education on the subject does this book really provide? What enthusiasts of woodcut novels and wordless books could really use is an in-depth scholarly study of the subject, with more concrete information on the artist's lives, the development of their techniques, the artists and writers that influenced them and who they in turn influenced, the creation and publication of their wordless books, and the historical context in which this art form was created. This should be supported by illustrations that show examples of the art, without giving you so many pictures, taken out of context, as to hinder your enjoyment of reading the actual works. If the purpose of Wordless Books is to inspire a readership of these works, how is this purposed served by telling us which characters live or die? The experience one gets from Beronä's study is roughly equivalent to trying to learn about the history of American literature through a series of Reader's Digest condensed books.

Beronä should be commended for his career of work on this subject, but all the promotional copy I've read on this book leads one to believe it is a definitive scholarly study of wordless books, which it is not. Instead, it's like reading a collection of the two-page introductions to the Dover reprint editions of many of these works. So why not just collect the Dover reprints, or seek out the works of these great artists through your local university library?
7 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Kurt Brian Webb
5.0 out of 5 stars A Serious Look into Wordless Books
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2008
Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels by the prolific writer David Beronä is a gem filled with informative serious content for the novice and well seasoned in the woodcut novel genre. This beautiful book is a visual treat to read with images around every turn of a page. In Beronä's past articles on the topic and now in this book, it is always interesting to read his interpretation on these masterful wordless books. Many familiar with this genre have seen the illustrations from his book, however there is freshness in seeing these pictures in this new context. Increasing the print size on some of the pages is a nice touch and lets the viewer see things in the prints that they more than likely have missed in the past. Numbered specific references in the text allow the reader to be deeply taken into important parts of the books described in separate chapters. The conclusion convincingly points to the role these wordless masterpieces have shaped current graphic novels. Having scans of dust jackets from many of the original editions in the ending section is a very exceptional way to end the book. Many have looked forward to David Beronä's book for a long time and there is no disappointment in any way, shape or form! It has it all!
16 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Austin Kleon
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect introduction to woodcut novels and wordless books
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2008
David Berona has been studying wordless books for 20 years, but only in the past couple of years has the "graphic novel boom" of the industry allowed him to publish his research. In this handsome book he presents an introduction and sampler of the form's greatest works and artists in a clear, useful, and unpretentious manner. The images included are crisp and beautiful. This is a must-purchase for any fan of comics or narrative art.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

volker kroecher
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on July 11, 2014
Verified Purchase
a great book
Report