The Acrostic Paradise Lost by John Milton and Terrance Lindall

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winner of the Hugo Award, twice winner of the World Fantasy Award, editor of the
acclaimed Whispers anthologies. Lindall’s art is also in the collections of both Stephen
Schwartz, the famous lyricist for Broadway and films and winner of three Academy
Awards, and Michael Karp, whose music is perhaps the most performed on television.
Mark Daniel Cohen, critic for Review Magazine and NY Arts Magazine, states that
“Clearly avoiding the view that Pop imagery is inherently a sign of trauma, Terry Lindall
employs the cartoon elements of style with a charming and often unnerving directness
and simplicity, frequently aimed at causing a trauma all his own. This is particularly the
case with his illustrations of Milton’s Paradise Lost, with which he reaches a hyperintensified
and nearly hysterical verve."
"I love these! There is a wonderful Bosch-meets-Blake quality combined with something
wholly modern. . .," Professor Michael E. Bryson, Associate Professor of English,
California State University, Northridge, proclaimed recently in open admiration of
Lindall’s illustrations.
In using one of Lindall’s paintings from the Nii Foundation collection for the major
exhibit "Citizen Milton" at the Bodleian Library, honoring Milton's 400th birthday in
2008, Oxford University recognized Lindall's contribution to the continuing Miltonian
artistic legacy. And indeed Lindall’s contribution is great and virtually immeasurable!
Those contributions and Lindall’s monumental illustration have inspired Peter Dizozza to
prepare “Incidental music to Milton’s Paradise Lost” in 2008, “Composed for Terrance
Lindall,” honoring Milton, first and foremost, but thereby honoring Lindall as well.
A short time later, famed Lutheran hymn writer Amanda Husberg composed a requiem
mass for Terrance Lindall in recognition of his contributions to the understanding of and
earthly resurrection of John Milton's "glorious" Paradise Lost. Noted Lutheran hymn
text writer and poet Richard Leach wrote a new text for the requiem mass. The Requiem
in honor of Lindall was published by Concordia Publishing House in 2010, receiving
high praise from David Johnson, Head of the Publishing House, as being “totally
enthralling, engaging the heart, the mind, and the spirit with absolute beauty, balance and
integrity. About his Requiem, Lindall commented, "It will be the final act of my
Paradise Lost project and acknowledgement of my own resurrection. The 'two handed
engine of truth and justice' will prevail in resurrecting the spirit of John Milton!"
Lindall's illustrations have been called “surrealistic” in the manner of André Masson,
Salvador Dali, and Max Ernst, but he takes his art to another level as
“surrealistprovocateur. “ He is highly regarded for the powerful effect his illustrations
have and will continue to have by the juxtaposition of images within the context of a
given illustration, for the lasting achievement of an artist who combines surrealism with
his interpretation of how that best applies to Milton, allowing him to bring together richly