His father was a Methodist minister whose first assignment was the Northeastern University Settlement House, where he became a part of the movement sparked by Jane Addams and others to better the conditions of the working class. As a result, all through Ward's childhood and wherever the family resided, he was close to the problems of the working people.
The Harry Ward family moved often, in accordance with new pastoral assignments. Lynd Ward's childhood and youth were thus spent in Oak Park and Evanston, Illinois; Newton Centre, Massachusetts; and Englewood, New Jersey. His family forbade him to play games or enjoy other diversions on Sunday afternoons, so he spent many of those hours reading and looking at pictures in the few books to which he had access. Two favorite books were a volume of Bible stories, illustrated by Gustave Dore, and a circus story in which toys came to life. In later years, Ward said that he probably absorbed these books primarily in visual terms and that this experience led to his interest in exploring how pictures can communicate without words.
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