Helen West Heller (Rushville, Illinois 1872 to New York Citty 1955)
Westsite: http://pantherpro-webdesign.com/heller/index.html

From 1923 to 1955 - Helen West Heller produced over six hundred woodcuts which established her as a major American print-maker. Exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum and Columbia University won her widespread recognition and institutions such as the Library of Congress and Brooklyn Museum acquired her prints. Unfortunately, like too many other women artists of the period, Helen West Heller was nearly forgotten, accept for the writings of Dr. Ernest Harms. Dr. Harms wrote an important appreciation of her prints, Helen West Heller - The Woodcutter for the Print Collector's Quarterly. April 1942, and an article on her life, Dark to Light: An appreciation of the life work of Helen West Heller, 1872-1955, for American Artist (magazine), November 1957.

Lynd Ward's first work, God's Man, 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 (193

Novels in Woodcuts:
HELENA BOCHORAKOVA-DITTRICHOVA (Czechoslovian 1894-1980)
a. "Childhood: A Cycle of Woodcuts" 1931
PETER HOWSON (Scottish, b. 1958)
a. "Hero of the People" 1987
LAURENCE HYDE (English/Canadian 1914-1987)
a. "Southern Cross" 1951
FRANS MASEREEL (Belgium 1889-1972)
a. "The Passion of a Man" 1918
b. "My Book of Hours" 1919 aka "Passionate Journey" 1947
c. "The Sun" 1919
d. "Story without Words" 1920
e. "The Idea" 1920
f. "The City" 1915
g. "Faces and Grimaces" 1926
h. "The Work" 1928
i. "Landscapes and Voices" 1929
j. "Our Times" 1952
k. "My Country" 1956
OTTO NUCKEL (German 1888-1955)
a. "Destiny: A Story in Pictures" 1930
GIACOMO PATRI (Italian/American 1898-1978)
a. "White Collar" 1940
JAMES REID (1907-1989)
a. "The Life of Christ - in Woodcuts" 1930
LYND KENDALL WARD (American 1905-1985)
a. "God's Man: A Novel in Woodcuts" 1929
b. "Madman's Drum" 1930
c. "Wild Pilgrimage" 1932
d. "Prelude to a Million Years" 1933
e. "Song Without Words" 1936
f. "Vertigo" 1937
g. "Lynd Ward's Last, Unfinished, Wordless Novel" 1985

more on wordless books here:
http://www.pantherpro-webdesign.com/heller/art_of_woodcutting.html#novels

Novels in woodcut, wordless books, illustrated books, limited edition, Equinox Cooperative Press, Lynd Ward, Frans Masereel, Helen West Heller

The Equinox Cooperative Press, which published 12 books and 4 soft-covered Equinox Quarters from 1932-1937, was the idea of Lynd Ward and Henry Hart. In her autobiographical memoir addressed to Fay Gold on October 18, 1955, Heller West Heller complained about many things - including about publishing her book of woodblock verse (Migratory Urge), a process she claimed Lynd Ward later took credit for. Regardless of Heller's bitter feelings, she and Ward shared many common interests in terms of printmaking and social concerns - Lynd Ward would be the main speaker at her memorial service on April 13, 1956.
A list of Novels in Woodcuts is here: http://www.pantherpro-webdesign.com/heller/art_of_woodcutting.html#novels

1. Now That the Gods art Dead; by Llewelyn Powers, illus. by Lynd Ward
   
2. This Earth; by William Faulkner
   
3. A Visit from St. Nicholas; by Clement C. Moore
   
4. A Christmas Poem; by Thomas Mann; illus. by Lynd Ward
   
5. Prelude; a poem by Conrad Akins
   
6. We Need One Another; by D. H. Lawrence
   
7. Prelude to a Million Years; a book of 30 wood engravings by Lynd Ward
   
8. Three Blue Suits; by Aline Bernstein
   
9. Nocturnes; by Thomas Mann; lithographs by Lynd Ward
   
10. Comrade Mister; by Isidor Schneider
    
11. One of Us: The Story of John Reed; by Lynd Ward and Granville Hicks
    
12. Imperial Hearst; by Ferdinand Lundberg
    
13. America Today: A Book of 100 Prints,
    from an exhibition at American Artists' Congress.
14. Freud and Marx; by Reuben Osborn
    
15. False Security; by Bernard J. Reis
    
16. The Writer in a Changing World; edited by Henry Hart

A history of the press is presented in "A Relevant Memoir" by Henry Hart.

"If I remember correctly, I felt the need to escape all these representations of war. So I turned to something more inside of me. With the 'Book of Hours' I wanted from what I did every day, detach, that is, from my reviews, my satires, my accusations against the war and by the impetuosity of my expression, I guess I wanted to express something else, and so have I started with my story autobiographical character that I romanticized a bit. I think that is the essence is of the, say what I wanted, I pushed it out a bit of my philosophy, and perhaps contains, My Book of Hours' with its 167 woodcuts potentially everything that I've created it, for I have elsewhere and later developed a number of issues with it." - Masereel on "My Book of Hours", 1919 (Analects, 1967, p 43/44