1943, the Heritage Press, Moby Dick, illustrated by Boardman Robinson

Boardman Robinson, born in Nova Scotia, lived from 1876 to 1952, was an illustrator, muralist and cartoonist.

Teacher at the Art Students League, in NYC, it comes as no surprise, given the devastation of WWI, he was a socialist, working on the socalist monthly, The Masses.

In the introduction, of the Heritage Press edition, written by Clifton Fadiman, is the following:

"No one on the Pequod... can overcome his fear of Ahab because the fear is seated in himself. His Ahab-fear is a fear of himself, or rather the pit of blackness, the central dark mother-lode of despair which every man at times knows to be within him."

Robinson's Ahab is a dark mother-lode of despair.