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A Danton Burroughs and John Coleman Burroughs Family Archive Feature |
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John Coleman ~ Hulbert ~ Stan Vinson
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Oct. 7, 1953
Dear Mr. Burroughs:
I had a visit last Sunday with a Mr. Gough (pronounced Goff) who is an artist and had studied under J. Allen St. John. He stoped in Mansfield just to see my St. John paintings. We talked about, and studied the portrait of your father and both feel that the trouble with the right eye is all in the black and white reproduction. The color in the oil painting seems quite good to us, but the photograph does seem poor. I wish you could see the original. The more I study this painting the more I like it. I think it is an excellent job considering the problems involved. I don't mean to stick my nose into your business but hope you won't mind if I comment for a moment. I am a business man myself. My father started this business 50 years ago in 1903. He is still living and active. We build electric motors, etc. in competition with General Electric and Westinghouse. We do not deal with the general public as much as you do but do to some extent. I have collected your father's works for about 20 or 25 years and suppose I have about $5000.00 in the hobby not counting my time. Although I have played with other hobbies such as stamp and coin collecting, this has been so much more fun that there is no comparison. I regularly correspond with people all over the world trying to find Tarzan stories in different languages. It seems that any place you write they know about Tarzan I keep in close touch with most of the collectors in this country. Such as Rev. Darrell C. Richardson, Vernell Coriell, Maurice Gardner, etc. I hear all of the complaints of your best supporters. The feeling is that they don't get answers to their questions, the books are out of print, the newspapers are droping the Tarzan comic strips and Tarzan is giving way to Buck Rogers & Captain Vidio. They hate to see this as they all love the Tarzan stories so much and feel that ERB Inc. has let them down in their effort to keep interest up. I know myself, the local bookstore has wanted me to make up a window display of my paintings, first editions, magazines, foreign editions, etc. I hate to do it as they could not furnish any of the books and my limited supply of duplicate copies would not help much. It seems to me you should put more effort in answering collectors questions, reprint (which I understand you plan to do) some of the books. Some of the stories not in book form could be gotten into hard covers. Such as "Tarzan and the Champion", "Tarzan and the Jungle Murders" and "The Quest of Tarzan". Also the Mars stories and Pellucidar stories. The miscellaneous stories are more of a problem. Take "Beyond Thirty", it is so dated it is probably of no interest to anyone but the collectors. Someone should have permission to photostat the Boston Globe reprint of this story. As it is, the collectors are passing the few available copies around and typing copies for themselves. This is a big job and then they feel like some mistakes are bound to creap in. "Jimber Jaw" "Scientist Revolt" and "Beyond the Farthest Star" could b in hard covers. "Girl from Farris's" and "Efficiency Expert" are a question but can still be found in the original magazines. I hope you take no offense at all this. I am not trying to tell you how to run your business. I have my own problems. It is just that I have such a deep feeling for your fathers work that I hate to hear all the complaining among collectors. I hear the next Tarzan movie may be "Tarzan and the Woman from Outer Pace." Swell. Yours,
Stan Vinson |
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November 16, 1962 |
December 19, 1962 |
April 2, 1963 |
April 15, 1963 |
January 26, 1965 |
HANDWRITTEN UNDATED NOTES ON A YELLOW LINED SHEET |
February 16, 1965 |
March 5, 1965 |
March 16, 1965 |
March 23, 1965 |
March 30, 1965 |
April 21, 1967 |
April 24, 1967 |
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