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Back in 1995 when I still published the paper edition of Manteia I wrote an article dealing with the Waite-Smith
Tarot (or like most people called it at that time:
The Rider-Waite tarot
)
. It was about the same time when a tarot deck called
The Original Rider Waite Tarot Pack
was published as a joint venture by Rider/Random House in London and US Games Systems Inc. This pack was promoted
as being a facsimile of the WST-deck as it was first printed in 1909.
For several years my collection has included a couple of WST-decks, which obviously were older than the standard
packs sold, but I had not paid much attention to them before, though they were a little different. Taking a closer
look I discovered more differences than I had noticed before, and at this time my Waite-Smith research began.
Certainly this was an area that needed to be explored. I mailed requests to collectors I assumed could have early
Waite-Smith packs in their collections and to a number of museums. None of my own packs had an accompanying book,
which could have been a help for an accurate dating. Over the next couple of years a lot of photocopies were added
to my study material and two other and again different older WST- packs entered my collection.
When Danish Ulrik Golodnof in the year 2000 arranged what justly could be called the `First European Tarot Congress'
in Copenhagen, I decided that an appropriate theme for my slide illustrated lecture would be `The Story of
the Waite-Smith Tarot'. What surprised me most was that the audience, who almost all used the Waite-Smith Tarot
for their tarot work, had not the faintest idea about the persons, who created the deck, their background and what
else they had achieved.
Next it happened was that Janet Berres, president of the "International Tarot Society", invited me to come
to the society's congress in Chicago to receive their "Life Achievement Award 2001". Again it was the WST- theme
which had to stand in for my lecture. The congress was, due to the 9.11 attack, postponed until the following year.
Coincidently, at the same day that I left Denmark for USA, an ebay sale ended. A WST-rarity had shown up for sale.
A Pam-A with the roses and lilies back pattern which had only been heard of before, manifested for the very first
time. Thanks to my articles, the seller knew what he had in his hands and he wanted to get the most for it,
mailing messages about the auction to potential buyers. The last hours of the auction were hectic. There were only
two inexperienced ebay bidders left, all others had long ago left the scene. The price had reached a level, where
most people could not or would not continue. The remaining bidders were Italian Lo Scarabeo and US Games Systems Inc.
In the end, the latter won the auction. Stuart R. Kaplan had, for an indecently high price gotten his Pam-A, roses
and lilies deck. He brought it with him to the ITS's congress and this was the first occasion I got to see it.
Later, luckily, another copy showed up, now owned by a Dutch collector.
When the convention was about to end and most people were ready to leave, including Stuart R. Kaplan, he approached
me in the sales room, with the question `Can you write about what you have shown here for volume IV of the
Encyclopedia. Up the 36 (I think it was) pages and under your own name?' I was a bit hesitant. A very short time
to consider this properly but, anyway, I accepted reluctantly on the condition, that he send me enlarged laser
prints of the roses and lilies deck, which he noted in a small notebook.
Back in Denmark, I sort of regretted my decision; the amount Kaplan offered me was not much and 36 large pages in the
encyclopedia is quite a lot. Anyway, I had accepted, so I began slowly to structure the material, while waiting for
Mr. Kaplan's colour laser prints to arrive, but they never did. I never again heard from Mr. Kaplan and volume IV
of "Encyclopedia of Tarot" was published in 2005 without my text. Meanwhile I had, by and by, realized that the
story I wanted to tell, certainly was not the story Mr. Kaplan wanted to be told. Instead I expanded the story with
a book in mind.
I looked around for a publisher now that I had already used a lot of time on this project. In 2003 Lo Scarabeo
invited me to visit them in Turin (Torino), Italy to - among other topics - discuss a possible publication of
"The Story of the Waite-Smith Tarot". With me I brought my precious early WST decks and a print-out of the
manuscript, which at that time was about 60% finished with the remaining chapters sketched. It was an awarding
visit, but it did not come to a definite publishing agreement. Lo Scarabeo had, after they had published their own
edition of the Waite-Smith deck, been involved in copyright problems with Random House. Until this disagreement
was settled, they could not commit themselves. This could be endless or at least last until any possible existing
copyrights finally ran out in 2012. At the same time I also learned that Lo Scarabeo's Pietro Alligo had been
working on an alternative theory about the sequence of the early WST editions, which I offered him to add to the
book as an appendix.
Shortly after was my book finished. Not only in the form of a written manuscript and a list of possible
illustrations, but as finished book designed with all illustrations properly placed along with the relevant text.
The only thing missing was a final correction of my more or less insufficient mixed English/American language.
I tried out a couple of USA publishers but without much luck. The standard reply being, of course, that it did not
look sufficiently enough to be economically rewarding. One major publisher returned it with the explanation, that
it certainly deserved to be published as a hardback edition but, unfortunately, they did not publish hardbacks. For
a short while I considered self-publishing, but all the extra work it would imply frightened me off. Entering into
the business tax system, bookkeeping, keeping track on sales tax, promoting, packing, mailing etc.; doings I had
more than enough of during the years I published catalogues and administered Spilkammeret's yearly exhibitions.
The book was finished, but of no use as long as no one could read it. It was not really a matter of getting payment
for it, but rather that I wanted to lay it behind me to get on to other projects. For different reasons, I had
obtained contact with the Australian based "Association for Tarot Studies" and with Jean-Michel David. When I
mentioned the book, he suggested that ATS could publish it, as they had done with Robert O'Neill's "Tarot Symbolism".
And so it happened.
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