WHY IS THE "RETURN OF TARZAN" DUST-JACKET UNAVAILABLE ?

FOR DECADES there has been only one reference source for THE RETURN OF TARZAN jacket, and that was in rather poor shape. Though the text was readable and it was possible to match most of the type faces used, it was difficult to ascertain exactly what color the paper stock might have been originally and how the reproduction of the N.C. Wyeth painting had been handled by the photoengraver. In fact, the front cover was so scuffed from wear over the years (it was published in 1915, remember) that it was only possible to tell that the artwork was apparently the same used on the A.L. Burt and Grosset & Dunlap reprint editions.

Through the help of knowledgeable and dedicated ERB fans such as Robert Barrett, George McWhorter, Robert Zeuschner and others I've been able to get enough views of the original jacket to reconstruct a replica with great fidelity to the original, and I've written about that in my piece on the READINGS page.

The part of the jacket I've never been very happy with is the cover art. Though painted by N.C. Wyeth, trained by Howard Pyle and one of the best loved American artists of the Golden Age of Illustration, there's always been something wrong, to my eye (and the eye of other artists and collectors), about the image. Not many fans like that cover art. They have a hard time believing that an illustrator as fine as Wyeth, could have made Tarzan's nose so big, his mouth so loosely slashed on the canvas, his eyes so extropic.

Recently, artist Thomas Yeates, illustrator of TARZAN comics for Dark Horse and the PRINCE VALIANT comic strip, and long-time Burroughs fan, contacted me with questions about reconstructing the art to accord more closely to what he felt certain was what Wyeth had actually created. He sent me a detail scan from his copy of a Grosset & Dunlap jacket for RETURN, which was a little more detailed than my own Burt printing, and he demanded "Justice for N.C. Wyeth!"

I began investigating what I could of the various reproductions, starting with the August, 1913, cover of NEW STORY MAGAZINE where the painting first appeared. I set up a series of comparative images so we could see where and how the illustration might have changed from one iteration to another. Hi-res scans are hard to come by and the printed images are frequently out of register, but I've decided to revisit the jacket by using a reproduction of that NEW STORY cover from 1913, when Wyeth first painted it.

This will take a little time to work on, the magazine cover art is not easy to find and reference scans are seldom hi-res enough, but I'm certain that an image with better clarity is going to give fans a much truer picture of the art that Wyeth did for this classic story.

The idea of continuing to sell a jacket that does not come up to my own need for exactitude is distasteful to me, so I'm taking it off the market until I can get the cover art reworked to match my standard.

When these issues get cleared up, I'll put the jacket back on the market. All the previous buyers of it will be offered a special upgrade price. They paid for a truthful reconstruction and that's what I plan to give them.