LOL! Thanks Fulgour, I enjoyed that, and I agree with the implied assessment of Waite's writing style.
As you've probably concluded from this thread, Fulgour, my opinions about the origin of the deck and who did what on it are much more in line with Vincent's than with yours. But all rancour aside, I would be interested to hear from you (if you're interested in telling us) why you feel (and forgive me if I paraphrase your position incorrectly) that Smith created and drew the deck, submitted it for publication, and then Waite, who was heretofore uninvolved, suddenly pops up and writes a book about it and claims credit for having created it and having commissioned Smith to be the deck's artist, such claims being supposedly false.
This would be in contrast to the more commonly held belief that Waite did indeed conceive of the deck, and did commission Smith to do the art, and dictated to her the vast majority of the content of the images of the Majors and an unknown but presumably significant amount of the content of the images of the Minors.
The evidence for the latter view is the statements of Waite himself. As far as I know, there are no contemporary accounts by other people of the creation of the deck, so we are left with Waite's and Smith's statements. The single quote attributed to Smith, which you quote in an earlier post, doesn't mention Waite, but there was really no reason for her to mention him, because the letter containing those words pertained only to the artwork, its possible sale, and her fears about the printing process, none of which had anything to do with Waite.
So that leaves us with Waite's comments. As they've been quoted here, he several times makes reference to having conceived of the deck and of dictating the cards' symbolism to Smith. Sometimes it's not clear exactly to what degree of control Waite is speaking to (one may argue, for example, whether he is responsible for all of the imagery or most of the imagery), but it seems clear, if we are to take Waite at his word, that he is at least responsible for most of the content of the imagery, that is, deciding what will go on each card, and that he directed Smith what to draw, and she drew it. I personally believe she threw in atmospheric touches of her own and may have come up with some of the Minor Arcana scenes, but it's still apparent, again if we take Waite at his word, that it is Waite's deck, which Smith has illustrated.
So my question for you, Fulgour -- and I ask because I'm genuinely curious and I won't argue with whatever response you may make -- is, what evidence do you look to, or what leads you to believe, that Smith created the deck all by herself and Waite's involvement was only after the fact? I admit that the evidence for it being Waite's deck is not 100% ideal (a contemporary account by another person would make it stronger), but as far as I know there is no evidence to suggest that Waite's statements are untrue (and therefore no reason to assume they are untrue).
Thanks --
Lee