Story of the Waite-Smith Tarot
by Frank Jensen
The Association for Tarot Studies is delighted
in being able to present K. Frank Jensen's important
book on The Story of the Waite-Smith Tarot.
Please note that front-cover is from the
pre-print image, and may have minor differences to the
published version.
The recommended retail price is set at AU$
35 (approx €22 / US$ 33) plus postage and handling.
Airmail to most parts of the world
currently stands at above AU$ 21 (2007 costs). We have therefore decided
to use the lower figure and provide a standard international
postal charge, subject to periodic review based on alterations
in postal charges.
Total cost (including postage) AU$ 56
approximately equal to €34 / US$53 (subject to currency exchange rates)
Ordering (outside Australasia)
Also note that this book is also
available from Tarot
Garden
Payment and contacting us for delivery
We do not yet have an automated online shop and apologise for the inconveniance this may create. However, we have tried to make purchasing a two-step process: 1) pay; and then 2) let us know so that we can send the book to your address.
First make you Credit card payment or PayPal transfer (please note that the details you enter on PayPal are not visible to us, including postal details linked to your credit card). For those hesitant in using PayPal or other online payment facility, our combined individual experience over the years has shown it to be secure - and of course, I personally always check Credit Card statements in case of strange activity.
After your payment has been made, please return to this page.
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Email details to jmd@association.tarotstudies.org.
Please allow five working days for your order to be processed and mailed.
Members of the Association for Tarot
Studies receive a 25% rebate off the RRP - please
advise of your membership in the email.
If purchasing multiple copies, please first check with us for postage.
Postal address
Association for Tarot Studies
PO Box 4013
Croydon Hills
Vic. 3136
Australia
Pre-Print information (subject to minor
changes)
Cover size: 21cm x 21 cm (approx. 8.3" x
8.3")
Number of pages: 222, of which 14 are colour plates
Waite-Smith Tarot Research
Frank Jensen has made some online corrections to the book, as well as publishing other research on this most popular of decks in the 20th century. For details, see his site at:
> www.manteia-online.dk
Featured Review
Book Review of Frank Jensen's The Story
of the Waite-Smith Tarot
As Mr. Jensen notes, “Tarot did not come out of
nothing and its history is important to get a full understanding
of the phenomenon it is”. The phenomenon clearly
has its shadow side, as Jensen’s book in part suggests.
Jensen’s historical overview includes a useful summary
of already available information about the originators
of the Waite-Smith tarot. The overview of Ms Colman-Smith’s
life is particularly of interest as the information is
little known and hard to access. A. E. Waite, as Jensen
describes him, was an editor of trade publications, a would-be
poet, a man with no formal education, and a prolific but
mediocre writer. Pamela Colman-Smith, in contrast, was
well educated, well-travelled, and a talented and unusual
painter, storyteller and illustrator, particularly in the
context of being an unmarried, independent female artist
in Victorian England. The contrast between the fame and
talents of the two protagonists of Mr. Jensen’s story
is ironic. The tribute this book pays in many ways to the
ignored and forgotten Colman-Smith is one of its most satisfying
elements.
A highlight of the second part of the book is its overview
of the incarnations and misadventures of the Waite-Smith
deck itself over the last century. Jensen’s meticulous
research uncovers multiple versions of the deck, not all
of them well executed copies of the Colman-Smith original.
A key riddle emerges about the fate of the original art
work for the deck.
Mr. Jensen raises some challenging questions about the
world of commercial tarot publishing, outlining the prolific
exploitation of Ms. Colman-Smith’s designs since
the 1970s and some uncertainties about copyright law as
it has been applied in the publishing world.
Finally, the many questions indirectly raised by Mr. Jensen’s
book serve us well by inviting further research and debate.
Among these questions might be included:
To what extent was Ms. Colman-Smith involved in the Golden Dawn and how far
did this influence the design of the Waite-Smith deck? How exactly did Waite
and Colman-Smith collaborate, if at all? How do the card designs, especially
for the minor cards, compare to Colman-Smith’s visionary / intuitive
painting or her work as a story teller and illustrator? How might we understand
the Waite-Smith story, for example the absence of Colman-Smith’s name
from the deck she designed, from the angle of gender politics? (Interestingly,
Colman-Smith was involved with suffragette movement, as were other women involved
with the Golden Dawn.) What did Colman-Smith get paid for
her tarot deck designs, and was she or her estate further compensated for the ‘goldmine’ that
the deck became for its publishers? What does the story of Waite and Colman-Smith
reveal of the more shadowy world of commercial tarot publishing?
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