James Reid’s only wordless publication, The Life of Christ in Woodcuts, is not a novel or a story as it merely illustrates highlights in a well known story.
James Colbert Reid (1907 – 1989)
Born in Philadelphia, James Reid completed a four-year course at the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, where he studied illustration under Thornton Oakley, a disciple of the Brandywine School made famous by N. C. Wyeth. In 1930, Reid produced seventy-eight wood engravings for The Life of Christ in Woodcuts and in 1931 produced thirty wood engravings for The Song of Songs, both published by Farrar & Rinehart of New York. Because of the deepening economic depression, Reid turned to commercial art for his livelihood, producing work for many corporations in the metropolitan Philadelphia region. He nonetheless continued as an active printmaker on a more limited basis in his later years.
As per Robert Strossi, Briar Hill Gallery
Philadelphia-born illustrator James Reid gained notoriety for his woodcut illustrations in the years just prior to the Great Depression. His work was regarded as highly sophisticated and emotive. This work, published by the Farrar & Rinehart publishing house in New York, had very good commercial success. His second book, an illustration of the Song of Songs, did not fare well in the declining economy, and so Reid did not produce any more illustrated books. He worked successfully as a commercial artist for the rest of his life.
La Salle University, in reviewing The Life of Christ