The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 57, July 1953 - April, 1954 Page: 412
585 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
to be ungrateful, but there are several things one would wish
changed. Perhaps it was necessary, because of cost or other con-
siderations, to lump the illustrations all together at the back of
the book instead of scattering them throughout the text so that
each could be located near the author's discussion of it; but it
would still be helpful if there were references from the text to
the illustrations, for by no means all of the pictures Professor Taft
discusses in detail are reproduced, and one is forever turning
to the illustrations in search of a picture that is not there.
What is really exasperating, however, is the awkwardness of
using the notes. They are lumped together at the end of the
text and, as is customary, are numbered consecutively starting
anew with each chapter. When the reader turns to them he has
no idea what chapter the particular notes confronting him
pertain to, and he must fumble and stumble until he locates
those for the chapter he wants. It would be a simple matter for
a publisher to print a running chapter head in the notes section,
as in the text, but I know of no book offhand in which this is
done.
It might be remarked, too, that the notes to this book, valuable
as they are, seem excessive. That is, when the notes run to as many
words as the text it might well indicate that much of the material
in them properly belongs in the text. Certainly such integration
would make the book easier to use.
It is too bad that Professor Taft saw fit to apply his limiting
dates so rigidly. It is a peculiar book on western artists and
illustrators that does no more than mention Charles M. Russell
or George Catlin or some of the others that have been set aside.
That these artists have been treated adequately elsewhere, as the
author asserts, the excellence of his own work refutes, for there
is nothing in print on Remington, for instance, which approaches
the quality and thoroughness of the chapter he devotes to him.
Detailed, accurate, and thoroughly documented work such as
Professor Taft's is not merely a replowing of the same ground,
his own modest opinion to the contrary.
Finally, one must regret Scribner's decision to reproduce all the
illustrations in black and white. With a book costing $8.50 it
is already a little late to think of economy; a few dollars should
have been added to the cost so that color plates could have been412
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 57, July 1953 - April, 1954, periodical, 1954; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101152/m1/493/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.