Alfred Douglas
Clearing up some mysteries
Gosh! I've just read this thread for the first time, and I'm amazed at the attention people pay to the smallest detail. So, let's see if I can clarify a few points.
I wrote my book 'The Tarot: The Origins, Meaning and Uses of the Cards' between 1968 and 1971. It was first published in hardback in 1972, by Victor Gollancz in London and Taplinger in New York. Penguin published paperback editions in both the UK and the US in 1973 (the copyright page in both Penguin editions is incorrect, giving the date of the Gollancz edition as 1973 instead of 1972).
David Sheridan created 78 black and white drawings, to my instructions, to illustrate the book. He then coloured these drawings using flat sheets of Letracolour, cut to follow the contours of the drawings, using a scalpel. The idea was to produce a 'stained glass' effect, echoing the early woodcut Tarots.
We couldn't find a playing card manufacturer to produce a deck based on our designs, so relied on a general printer in London. The cards were laminated to give them a durable finish. That made them stiff.
The book went to press before the cards were ready, and we wanted to include a 'plug' for the cards in the book. A friend had a company called Moralice (London) Ltd, with offices in Fleet Street. He said we could put the name and address of his company in the book, and he would forward any mail that arrived for us. Moralice had no other connection with our Tarot deck.
We set up our own company, Mandragora Press, to publish the cards. The postcode WC2N 4EY appears on the original carton, so must have been in use, at least in Central London, in 1972.
Both hardback and paperback editions display two cards - The Fool and The Papess - on the front cover. It has been noted that the colours of these cards differ from those in the actual deck. This is because when the Art Director at Victor Gollancz wanted to reproduce two cards on the dust jacket the actual cards were not then ready and so I listed the colours that would be used on each card. The cards on the book covers were coloured by whoever designed the book jacket at Gollancz. So they didn't match the printed versions.
The backs of the cards were plain purple, except for the final print run where they were changed to a purple/white mottled pattern.
Gosh! I've just read this thread for the first time, and I'm amazed at the attention people pay to the smallest detail. So, let's see if I can clarify a few points.
I wrote my book 'The Tarot: The Origins, Meaning and Uses of the Cards' between 1968 and 1971. It was first published in hardback in 1972, by Victor Gollancz in London and Taplinger in New York. Penguin published paperback editions in both the UK and the US in 1973 (the copyright page in both Penguin editions is incorrect, giving the date of the Gollancz edition as 1973 instead of 1972).
David Sheridan created 78 black and white drawings, to my instructions, to illustrate the book. He then coloured these drawings using flat sheets of Letracolour, cut to follow the contours of the drawings, using a scalpel. The idea was to produce a 'stained glass' effect, echoing the early woodcut Tarots.
We couldn't find a playing card manufacturer to produce a deck based on our designs, so relied on a general printer in London. The cards were laminated to give them a durable finish. That made them stiff.
The book went to press before the cards were ready, and we wanted to include a 'plug' for the cards in the book. A friend had a company called Moralice (London) Ltd, with offices in Fleet Street. He said we could put the name and address of his company in the book, and he would forward any mail that arrived for us. Moralice had no other connection with our Tarot deck.
We set up our own company, Mandragora Press, to publish the cards. The postcode WC2N 4EY appears on the original carton, so must have been in use, at least in Central London, in 1972.
Both hardback and paperback editions display two cards - The Fool and The Papess - on the front cover. It has been noted that the colours of these cards differ from those in the actual deck. This is because when the Art Director at Victor Gollancz wanted to reproduce two cards on the dust jacket the actual cards were not then ready and so I listed the colours that would be used on each card. The cards on the book covers were coloured by whoever designed the book jacket at Gollancz. So they didn't match the printed versions.
The backs of the cards were plain purple, except for the final print run where they were changed to a purple/white mottled pattern.
