Photo of William Gropper circa 1939.
Photo of William Gropper circa 1939.

Gropper’s only wordless novel, Alay-oop, reproduces drawings done in pen and ink, crayon, and brush. It deals with failed dreams of success and jealousy. Although the mood appears light-hearted, Gropper illustrates the squalor of inner-city living.

William Victor “Bill” Gropper (Dec. 3, 1897 – Jan. 3, 1977) was a U.S. cartoonist, painter, lithographer, and muralist.

Throughout the 1920s he worked for a number of socialist magazines and in 1927 travelled to the USSR in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Following the Second World War, US censors suppressed books with socialist views such as Gropper’s.

Alay-oop (1930)

Trapeze artist in Gropper's wordless 1930 novel, Alay-oop.
Trapeze artist in Gropper’s wordless
1930 novel, Alay-oop.
  • Title: Alay-oop
  • Author and Illustrator: William Gropper
  • Date: 1930
  • Publisher: Coward-McCann, Inc.
  • Place of publication: New York
  • Printer: ?
  • Copyright: Coward-McCann, Inc.
  • Size: 8 x 5.5”
  • Dust jacket: Yes- designed by the artist
  • slipcase: ?, doubtful
  • Binding: red cloth binding
  • Cover: dust jacket.
  • Language: English titles, etc
  • Unpaginated
  • Printed: mostly printed on rectos; some images spread across both verso and recto
  • Edition: Trade only ??
  • Description: 92 unnumbered plates
    • This story has a dream sequence.
  • This wordless novel was done in crayon, pen and ink, brush, as well as a splattering effect, rather than woodcuts.
Front cover of dust jacket of Gropper's 1930 wordless novel, Alay-oop. Image credit: pigseyebooks.
Front cover of dust jacket of Gropper’s
1930 wordless novel, Alay-oop.
Image credit: pigseyebooks.
Spine of Gropper's 1930 wordless novel, Alay-oop. Image credit: pigseyebooks
Spine of Gropper’s 1930 wordless
novel, Alay-oop.
Image credit: pigseyebooks
Back dust jacket of Gropper's 1930 wordless novel, Alay-oop. Image credit: pigseyebooks
Back dust jacket of Gropper’s 1930
wordless novel, Alay-oop.
Image credit: pigseyebooks
Front inside flap of Gropper's 1930 wordless novel, Alay-oop. Image credit: pigseyebooks
Front inside flap of Gropper’s 1930
wordless novel, Alay-oop.
Image credit: pigseyebooks
Back inside flap of Gropper's 1930 wordless novel, Alay-oop. Image credit: pigseyebooks
Back inside flap of Gropper’s 1930
wordless novel, Alay-oop.
Image credit: pigseyebooks
Spine and front cover of Gropper's 1930 wordless novel, Alay-oop.
Spine and front cover of Gropper’s
1930 wordless novel, Alay-oop.
Title pages of Gropper's 1930 wordless novel, Alay-oop. Image credit: pigseyebooks
Title pages of Gropper’s 1930 wordless novel, Alay-oop.
Image credit: pigseyebooks
Title pages of Gropper's 1930 wordless novel, Alay-oop. Image credit: pigseyebooks

Title pages of Gropper’s 1930 wordless novel, Alay-oop.
Image credit: pigseyebooks
Images are mostly printed recto in Gropper's 1930 wordless novel, Alay-oop.
Images are mostly printed recto in Gropper’s
1930 wordless novel, Alay-oop.
Some images are printed are a two page spread, recto/verso in Gropper's 1930 wordless novel, Alay-oop.
Some images are printed are a two page spread,
recto/verso in Gropper’s 1930 wordless novel, Alay-oop.

Reprint 2019

Cover of Alay-oop reprint published by New York Review Books, 2019.
Cover of Alay-oop reprint published
by New York Review Books, 2019.

ISBN 10: 1681373009/ ISBN 13: 9781681373003

Published by New York Review Books, 2019

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