I’ve written about wordless books before. William Gropper made maybe my favorite, Alay-Oop, in 1930. He tugged at my sleeve again a few weeks ago with his illustrations for a pretty terrible Jewish immigrant novel being published in a new translation from the Yiddish. Aside from the mildly-entertaining Fiddler on the Roof-type beginning, the only thing to recommend the book is Gropper’s twenty drawings.

I went down a rabbithole with his stuff online. The paintings are pretty dreadful. Typical social realist stuff with a caricature edge that’s oddly stillborn in color. There’s one WPA post office mural that’s not bad but it’s mostly because it cribs from Breughel’s The Hunters in the Snow.

The book and newspaper illustrations are great.

He splits the difference between Daumier and Grosz but there’s an economy and coiled spring feel to the line that’s his own.

I found a children’s book he wrote and illustrated in 1955 and got a worn copy on eBay. It’s called The Little Tailor and is what that other book he illustrated for the other guy should’ve been.

I’ve culled most of my library, but exempted wordless novels and children’s books. These are still useful to me in offering paths forward in my own work.

Made another bookstore zine and some bookmarks and updated the bookstore map.

RIP Frank Auerbach. One of the greats.