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Sam:
Not only do I remember the book,
but I bought a leather-bound, slip-cased limited edition, signed and
numbered. I know Peter, and I had him add his signature to the book.
(He asked me where I got it, since he never saw that edition
himself)! [It cost a lot more than the paperback].
The major problem with the
images, in my view, is that all the dinosaurs look emaciated, and all of their
bones are TOO near the surface, and too visible.
Allan Edels
By the Way: I lost all my regular email
addresses (hard drive crash, just prior to moving data to new system). If
anyone out there wishes me to have their email address, please send it to me
off-list at mailto:Edels@MSN.COM.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 1999 2:11
AM
Subject: A dino masterpiece in
Sainsbury's clothing
While sorting through his attic, a friend of mine
discovered a book he had stolen from the school library when he was a
dino-enthusiastic boy. He no longer wanted it so he gave it to me.
I wasn't entirely sure at first - from the outside it looked like one of those
Monsters of the Mesozoic titles with the tail dragging rex and aquatic
Sauropods - you know the kind Sainsbury's publish with very little value to
the hardened book hunter. Boy was I wrong! It's called "THE
DINOSAURS - A fantastic new view of a lost era"
by William Stout, Byron press 1981. It turns out to be an art deco
styled imaginitive, unique little book. It portrays dinosaurs in a very
Bakkerian way for a book so soon after the Dinosaur Heresies was
published. It has an introduction by Peter Dodson and the images, though
representing a very stylized cartoon format do seem for the most part
proportionate and very moving. It has a great chapter telling the story
of a mating pair of Parasauolophus in the format of an erotic novel!!!
There's some ideas for pictures here that never would have occured to me - for
instance a young Laplatasaurus being crushed to death in the powerful coils of
Madtsoia the 30 foot snake. Another one where a T-rex was consuming a
snake (I'm guessing NOT the same species) and the pictures took for granted
that the dinosaurs were imperfect: They had fleas, scratches, skin
disease, bite marks, mud stains all the stuff real eco-systems are made
of. If you want a truly refreshing book to read, even 20 years after
it's publication, track down if you can a copy of this book - it's well worth
it.
Yours sincerely,
Sam Barnett (excuse the awful grammar - I'm just very enthusiastic about
this book!)
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