Irony – The Chicago fair of 1933 celebrating a Century of Progress had Charles Turzak onsite, cutting woodcuts for his wordless publication, Abraham Lincoln, using a 500 year old printing method.
Charles Turzak b. 1899, Streator, IL – d. 1986, Orlando, FL.
David Beronä in the Author’s Note to his book Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels referred to Turzak’s Abraham Lincoln: A Biography in Woodcuts as an anomaly ie not a wordless story. I agree with David. It is a collection of images showing selected highlights of Lincoln’s life. An outsider, with no knowledge of American history, would not be able to “read” the book or relay any sort of story.
Abraham Lincoln: A Biography in Woodcuts 1933
Turzak completed this book during the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair (Century of Progress exhibition) in the Lincoln Village. He occupied a space representing a small town store and cut the blocks where passersby could watch him. Beronä noted the irony that Turzak was at an exhibition highlighting advances in technology but he was using a printing process that had not changed significantly in the last 500 years.
Turzak claimed that his was the first ever wordless biography of any historical figure.
In 1931 Turzak married Florence Cockerham (1902–1999). He borrowed $50 from her wedding gift to pay for the high quality paper on which he printed the Lincoln biography (as stated in “Carving Out Fame: Miner’s Son Abandons Coal to Work with Hands at Art,” Literary Digest, June 27, 1936, 22.)
can see in this letter, Turzak later reduced it to $2.50.
This was at a time when a gallon of gas cost about a nickel.
Slipcase/Mailing Box/Dustcover
Slipcase – Apparently the prospectus states the book comes with a black slipcase. A number of copies have been sold with the slipcase (usually the slipcase is pencil numbered to correspond to the limitation number of the book). I don’t think any copies of the slipcase had images pasted on them.
- BTW – if you have a copy of the prospectus, could you send me images to use here (image credit to yourself) wn@wordlessnovels.com
Mailing box – Some copies were mailed out to buyers in a mailing box with a small print of Lincoln pasted to the front (see below). There is no room in the box to accommodate a slipcase.
Dustcover – Mark B. Pohlad in his excellent article, Charles Turzak’s Abraham Lincoln: Biography in Woodcuts (1933) J. of the Abraham Lincoln Assoc. Vol 34, Issue 2 Spring 2013, pp. 1-20. refers to figure 7, Deliberation, (this is #30 in Turzak’s list) where Lincoln clasps his left wrist as the image “used for the original dustcover for Turzak’s book”.
- I have not seen a reference to any dustcovers; I assume dustcover is the same as dust jacket – if anyone has images of the dustcover please send them to wn@wordlessnovels.com – photo credit will be given.
- I am not aware of any copies that have both a slipcase and a mailing box. I think it is either/or.
NOTE: This image of Lincoln holding the axe was not used in the book.
Problems with the production of the book
- Material used for the cover of the book:
- The prospectus suggests that the cover is washable (perhaps a nod to the “Century of Progress” exhibition).
- The cover material has a white, pebbly, shiny surface. I think it probably is washable – not that I have had a lot of need to wash books.
- THE PROBLEM – glue has trouble sticking to it. A number of books have loose spine labels or portions of the spine label have broken off.
- Covers that are bowed/splayed/yapping
- Tensions between the different materials on a cover can cause a cover to bend.
- I suspect the white shiny material has created a problem for a lot of the copies. I believe the white material has shrunk over time and/or the paper card that it covers has swollen – in either case, causing the cover to bend.
Original Woodcut??
The printed words, “An Original Woodcut by…..” appears to be on the FFEP – confirmation would be appreciated. I have not seen this printed page in other copies.
-Did some copies come with an additional woodcut? What else could this wording mean?
Book Details
- Title: Abraham Lincoln: A Biography in Woodcuts
- A slim volume with 36 woodcuts on French folded bible stock bound and hand stitched
- Author and Illustrator: Charles Turzak
- Introduction: Yes, a quote being the last sentence of Lincoln’s, Cooper Union Address; New York, February 27, 1860
- Date of publication: 1933
- Publisher: self-published?
- Place of publication: Chicago
- Printer: George C. Domke
- Typography: arranged by R. Hunter Middleton
- Copyright: Artist
- Dimensions:
- Book: 18.5 × 14.4 × 0.8 cm (7 5/16 × 5 11/16 × 3/8 in.)
- Leafs: 17.8 × 12.8 cm (7 1/16 × 5 1/16 in.)
- Mailing box: 19.2 × 14.5 × 1.2 cm (7 9/16 × 5 3/4 × 1/2 in.)
- slipcase or a mailing box
- Binding: hard cover
- Cover: shiny, white, pebbled surface
- Language: English titles, etc
- Paginated: Sort of – the woodcuts are numbered 1 to 34, with two unnumbered prints (frontispiece and Log Cabin introduction) plus a quote from Stanton.
- Printed: verso and recto
- Edition: limited to 1500 copies
- Printed from the original wood blocks.
- Description: pages are a French fold
- 13 unnumbered pages,
- 34 pages of plates, numbered
- 9 unnumbered pages:
It is suggested Turzak used this photo as a model
and added a beard for the frontis.
Photo credit: Library of Congress, Rare Book
and Special Collections Division.
wording is from the last sentence of Lincoln’s Cooper Union Address
New York, February 27, 1860
(assuming this was done as a woodcut).
