In a package postmarked May 31, 2005, addressed to my father
and myself — but at my address, I received a copy of Darrell C. Richardson’s
The Life and Work of J. Allen St. John, and a letter from its author:
“Will you please
give the enclosed book to your Dad. I am sending it to you so that you
can get a good look at it before you give this book to your father. I would
like for you to write a special review, comparing the two books: Grandmaster
of Adventure by David S. Spurlock & The Life and Work of J. Allen St.
John by Darrell C. Richardson.
“Your review of Spurlock’s book [in ERBapa #85]
is very revealing... I am enclosing a review of the Spurlock book which
just appeared on the Internet on Amazon.com ... [I’ve not included this
review]
Note the poor design and arrangement on pages
70-71, 126-127, 128-129 and 144-145. A Mystery? On page 42 the picture
is listed as an “exact St. John composition by artist Jeffrey Jones.” Is
this by St. John or Jones?
On page 6, and on the front flap is quoted, “The
drawings of St. John collects for the first time, the exquisite pen, ink,
and pencil illustrations of the grand Tarzan and heroic fantasy artist.”
No! This is absolutely not true. These illustrations have been reproduced
many, many, many times in books, magazines, fan-zines, advertisements,
etc. over a period of 50 years or more!
On pages 6, 7 Spurlock mentions many of the same
contemporary artists listed by Richardson in several of his earlier articles
on St. John. These were obviously lifted from Richardson’s work.
“Well, I could go on and on here, but I’ll stop
at this point. Please send me a copy of your review as soon as you complete
it.
Sincerely,
Darrell C. Richardson
(The Old Tiger)”
The copy of the book Darrell sent was inscribed:
“For my good friend Chester. D. Cuthbert,
a scholar and a gentleman.
The Old Tiger (Darrell C. Richardson)”
My father worked with Darrell back in the days of the Fabulous Faust
Fanzine, devoted to one of the most prolific pulp authors, whose most
famous pseudonym was Max Brand. Darrell was editor and publisher of that
fanzine. My father typed and cut many of the stencils to produce it. Decades
later, as its consulting editor, Darrell was also instrumental in having
my father’s essay on Faust, "Strength! Some Impressions of Max Brand,"
included in Jon Tuska and Vicki Piekarski’s 1996 book of essays,
The Max Brand Companion. Darrell and my father are contemporaries
and fellow collectors and they have been correspondents down through the
years, beginning even prior to their work on the Fabulous Faust Fanzine.
The history of scholarly efforts regarding the work of St. John have
been somewhat plagued by fans with proprietary interests. Dr. Richardson
contributed to the fan and science fiction pulp press back in the '50s
to promote St. John’s work, and amassed a personal checklist of appearances
of St. John’s work. His interest in St. John was reflected in the Fanscient
#11 (Spring 1950—see Appendix II), Other Worlds (July 1950),
and elsewhere and culminated in his 1991 publication of J. Allen
St. John—An Illustrated Bibliography. However, it seems to me that
the dint of the most scholarly effort on St. John first saw print in the
1964 publication of Dr. Henry Hardy Heins’ A Golden Anniversary Bibliography
of Edgar Rice Burroughs (Complete Edition, Revised). Part two of
that book, dedicated to Illustrations and Advertisements, pages 258 to
312 were dedicated exclusively to the work of St. John. Heins and Richardson
were contemporary collectors of both Burroughs and St. John among other
things, and Richardson’s assistance in dating magazine appearances from
the 1920s and 1930s was acknowledged by Heins on page 308 of the volume.
Dr. Richardson’s J. Allen St. John—An Illustrated Bibliography
was an updated version of the checklist that Dr. Heins provided in 1964,
with the added accumulated bibliographic scholarship of another quarter
century. In his acknowledgements to that volume, Dr. Richardson stated,
“In more recent years a number of fans
and collectors have continued their interest in the St. John quest. Foremost
among these has been Henry Hardy Heins… He has maintained contact with
collectors and done much to update this undertaking. Since receiving my
original bibliogrpahy he has maintained a list of St. John art and been
a clearing house for new information as it came in from researchers.”
In December 1991, almost immediately upon publication of Richardson’s J.
Allen St. John—An Illustrated Bibliography, Robert R. Barrett and
Dr. Heins produced an Addenda and Errata to Dr. Richardson’s book, and
Barrett went so far as to ask,
“Since George T. McWhorter had mentioned
several times in The Burroughs Bulletin that he intended to publish Henry
Hardy Heins bibliography of the works of St. John, I was immediately suspicious…
As it turned out Darrell was putting together his own St. John Bibliography
and did not want this fact known. As a result his finished product, while
none-the-less a worthy effort, is fraught with omissions, errors and typos.
In other words it shows the signs of being hastily thrown together. One
must ask the question: Was this because he was desperate to beat Heins
to the punch?” Barrett concludes his introduction to the leaflet by saying,
“I would like to emphasize that the purpose is not to cast aspersions at
Darrell’s fine book, but is made only in the interests of scholarship.”
Point by point, then let’s look at the aspects of J. David Spurlock’s Grandmaster
of Adventure—Drawings of J. Allen St. John drawn to my attention
by Dr. Richardson.
"Note the poor design and arrangement on pages
70-71, 126-127, 128-129 and 144-145."
Frankly, I did not have any problem with design of these pages, most
of which were laid out exactly like the pulp stories from which they were
taken.
"A Mystery? On page 42 the picture is listed as
an 'exact St. John composition by artist Jeffrey Jones.' Is this by St.
John or Jones?"
Spurlock here appears to be pointing out the homage given by Jeffrey
Jones in one of his later fantasy drawings.
"On page 6, and on the front flap is quoted, 'The
drawings of St. John collects for the first time, the exquisite pen, ink,
and pencil illustrations of the grand Tarzan and heroic fantasy artist.'
No! This is absolutely not true. These illustrations have been reproduced
many, many, many times in books, magazines, fan-zines, advertisements,
etc. over a period of 50 years or more!"
Once again, Dr. Richardson appears to miss the promotional point being
made by Spurlock that it is the first time all these illustrations have
been drawn together in a single collection. The number of times they were
produced in other media is beside the point. Spurlock is drawing attention
to the collection of all these drawings itself.
"On pages 6, 7 Spurlock mentions many of the same
contemporary artists listed by Richardson in several of his earlier articles
on St. John. These were obviously lifted from Richardson’s work."
Although Spurlock may well have read some of Dr. Richardson’s earlier
articles on St. John, plagiarism from Richardson is not evident. Spurlock
mentions N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, Franklin Booth, Dean Cornwell, Mead
Schaeffer, Howard Pyle, Frank Schoonover and James Montgomery Flagg. One
could hardly say that any of these illustrators are virtual unknowns to
someone with Spurlock’s background in fantasy art. To classify St. John
as a contemporary of these famous illustrators is not a unique leap.
This is not to say, however, that Spurlock’s book is without faults.
In the previous mailing of the ERBapa I said, “This book should have been
the Burroughs illustrative collectors’ dream come true. Edgar Rice Burroughs’
most acclaimed illustrator’s work collected into a deluxe volume with high
quality reproduction on glossy stock paper.
“The compiler, editor, art director and publisher
of this volume, J. David Spurlock, veritably had the world at his fingertips…
and then let much of it slip through his grasp.”
I suggested also that Spurlock published a volume that was of primary
use to “the viewer who has never before seen a large collection of J. Allen
St. John’s artwork, [who] is in for a visual delight.”
My main problem with Spurlock’s wonderfully compiled and reproduced
book is that “for the reader who is looking for some artistic background
to the man behind the art, there is virtually nothing to be found in this
lovely looking volume.”
It is in this area that Dr. Richardson’s latest volume shines. Pages
7-54 of the book contain prose more or less equal to half of the content
of those pages. Those who have read Dr. Richardson’ previous writings on
St. John are not given any great surprises, but nonetheless there is a
personal quality to St. John that is allowed to surface in the telling
of St. John’s life as Dr. Richardson encountered it that was entirely lacking
in the Spurlock volume.
Richardson also points us towards the earliest known examination of
St. John the artist, found in the article
J. Allen St. John by Arthur B. Estes in the Metropolitan Magazine for
November 1898. The text of the article itself is Appendix I, here. However,
it would be interesting to see the article as it was originally presented
with the accompanying five illustrations described by Richardson on pages
10-11 of his latest book.
Richardson’s new book on St. John only suffers in comparison to the
Spurlock book in two regards. The first of these is the binding. Richardson’s
book is in softcover wraps while Spurlock’s book is in hardcover with slipcase.
The second area is in reproduction quality.
The review Dr. Richardson appended written by what might be thought
to be an obvious pseudonym “James Allen” (I searched fairly diligently
and could not find this review on Amazon.com), and which accompanied the
gift volume to my father mentioned “much of the rest
of the reproduction of this [Spurlock’s] book is not even taken from the
original published source, but rather from reprints, so the loss of quality
is all too obvious.” Although some linework is lost in Spurlock’s
reproductions which are taken from the original pulps or secondary sources,
for the most part the reproductions in Spurlock’s volume seem quite good.
Dr. Richardson’s volume mixes a predominance of colour reproductions
with a few black and white line drawings. Unfortunately, some of the colour
reproductions suffer from digital break-up (see pages 22, 35, 40, 45, 65,
66, 80-81, and page 83’s Tyrrel of the Cow Country). This is especially
noticeable on the chapter title lettering.
In addition, the lack of gutters between the reproductions, and some
quite small reproductions being used — both measures used to save paper,
I assume — does not allow the St. John illustrations the room to breathe
and for each illustration to have a life of its own.
The Life and Work of J. Allen St. John certainly offers
us a great deal more variety than does the Spurlock volume, and if one
is interested in the life of this amazing artist, then this volume definitely
would be the choice to make between the two books.
Spurlock is planning a second volume devoted to St. John’s paintings,
and apparently in naming his current volume, The J. Allen St. John Library
of Illustration Volume One, Dr. Richardson is also planning future
volumes.
Although I am glad to have both volumes sitting on my bookshelf, I wish
that a more collaborative effort using Spurlock’s design and publishing
skills with Richardson’s source material and prose would have produced
a uniform series of volumes on this most important of all the Edgar Rice
Burroughs artists. It would have been a marked improvement . - R.A.C.
Appendix I - J. Allen St. John by Arthur B. Estes (from the Metropolitan
Magazine - November 1898)
Appears in ERBzine
0068
Appendix II - J. ALLEN ST. JOHN, DEAN of FANTASY ILLUSTRATORS
by Darrell C. Richardson (from The Fanscient #11, Spring, 1950 Editor:
Donald B. Day)
Appears in ERBzine
0683
.