From: George McWhorter Posted: 06/30/09
George McWhorter is the esteemed editor of the excellent Burroughs Bulletin, devoted to the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. George recently wrote this review of the Schoonover set and I reproduce it here with his permission. -Bud
The Frank E. Schoonover Catalogue Raisonne was several years in the making but worth the effort expended in giving us a complete reference source for the artist who illustrated ERB's first story. We corresponded with the artist's grandaughter, Louise Schoonover Smith, for many months, making sure she got in touch with Burroughs fans who owned original Schoonover paintings, or were likely to have information on provenance. The six Barsoom paintings are listed separately in their time slots, giving the dates they were painted and the publications which contained reproductions of the paintings. For example, A Princess of Mars lists 14 publishers of one or more illustrations. When known, the current owners are identified. In researching the six paintings for Princess and Gods, four current owners were named Danton Burroughs, Bob Barrett, the Harley Family of Arizona, and the Free Library of Philadelphia. The remaining two Barsoon paintings were merely listed as sold by the artist to private collections.The two-volume set comes in a sturdy slipcase with color dust jackets and illustrated endpapers, with 831 numbered pages. I counted 1,379 color photos, with twice that many more in black & white, so we are getting our money's worth of beautiful illustrations.
Every known drawing or painting from Schoonover's student and professional days is accounted for. The set was published in association with the Schoonover Fund by Oak Knoll Press.