Men of Iron Howard Pyle - Men of Iron is an 1891 novel by the American author Howard Pyle, who also illustrated it. It is juvenile coming of age work in which the author has the reader experience the medieval entry into knighthood through the eyes of a young squire, Myles Falworth. In Chapter 24 the knighthood ceremony is presented and described as it would be in a non-fiction work on knighthood and chivalry. Descriptions of training equipment are also given throughout. It comprises 68,334 words and is divided into 33 unnamed chapters, an introduction, and a conclusion. It was made into a film in 1954, The Black Shield of Falworth.