Looking for Tarot bibliography 1940-1980

Ross G Caldwell

I'm looking for suggestions of books between about 1940 and 1980, in English, French, German, Italian or Spanish, in the popular Tarot genre. Books that may have been only in paperback or art books, or more luxurious publications if appropriate.

I learned Tarot divination from Eden Gray's books, so I know those, but I lack anything else published in those years. So books that anyone may have found influential in their lives or even transformative, are welcome. It doesn't matter if you've outgrown it or the quality, in hindsight, is very low.

Offer an opinion or even review if you like. My purpose is to assemble a representative library of the development of popular Tarot in the period before volume I of Kaplan's Encyclopedia of Tarot.

Thanks for any help.

Ross
 

rwcarter

From my database:

Astrology & the Tarot, Thierens, 1975
Devil's Picturebook, Huson, 1971
Dictionary of the Tarot, Butler, 1975
Esoteric Tarot, Kasdin, 1972
Evolution Through the Tarot, Gardner, 1977
Hanged Man, Kopp, 1974
Highlights of Tarot, Case, 1958, 1970
How to Read Tarot Cards, Doane and Keyes, 1971
Key to the Tarot, Waite, 1909
Mastering the Tarot, Gray, 1973
Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Waite, 1959
Pursuit of Destiny, Hasbrouck, 1960
Sacred Tarot, Zain, 1969
Sexual Key to the Tarot, Theodor, 1971
Tarot Classic, Kaplan, 1972
Tarot for Today, Mayananda, 1963
Tarot of the Bohemians, Papus, 1967
Tarot Therapy, Woudhuysen, 1979 (also released as Tarotmania)
Tarot, The, Maxwell, 1977
Tarot, The, Sadhu, 1968
Tarot: A New Handbook for the Apprentice Vol. 1, Connolly, 1979
Windows of Tarot, Graves, 1973

I have not included companion books in the above list.
 

Ross G Caldwell

From my database:

Astrology & the Tarot, Thierens, 1975
Devil's Picturebook, Huson, 1971
Dictionary of the Tarot, Butler, 1975
Esoteric Tarot, Kasdin, 1972
Evolution Through the Tarot, Gardner, 1977
Hanged Man, Kopp, 1974
Highlights of Tarot, Case, 1958, 1970
How to Read Tarot Cards, Doane and Keyes, 1971
Key to the Tarot, Waite, 1909
Mastering the Tarot, Gray, 1973
Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Waite, 1959
Pursuit of Destiny, Hasbrouck, 1960
Sacred Tarot, Zain, 1969
Sexual Key to the Tarot, Theodor, 1971
Tarot Classic, Kaplan, 1972
Tarot for Today, Mayananda, 1963
Tarot of the Bohemians, Papus, 1967
Tarot Therapy, Woudhuysen, 1979 (also released as Tarotmania)
Tarot, The, Maxwell, 1977
Tarot, The, Sadhu, 1968
Tarot: A New Handbook for the Apprentice Vol. 1, Connolly, 1979
Windows of Tarot, Graves, 1973

I have not included companion books in the above list.

Thanks very much! Nice collection. Only a handful are familiar to me, some I know but never read, and count as classics of the genre now (Huson I should have; I even correspond with him).

So, taking out what I have already, I'm left with a still substantial list. In chronological order -

Case 1958/1970
Waite 1959 (this is the one with Gertrude Moakley's introduction?)
Hasbrouck 1960
Mayananda 1963
Sadhu 1968
Zain 1969
Doane and Keyes 1971
Huson 1971
Theodor 1971
Kaplan 1972
Kasdin 1972
Graves 1973
Kopp 1974
Butler 1975
Thierens 1975
Gardner 1977
Maxwell 1977
Connolly 1979
Woudhuysen 1979
 

rwcarter

The '59 Waite is the University Books edition (with and without color plates) with Moakley's introduction.
 

Ross G Caldwell

Thank you for reminding me of Mouni Sadhu's book (actually first published in 1962). His was one of those books I always saw on the bookstore shelves, but could just never understand, so I never bought it.

What a difference all those years and occult education make! Now I grasp his point of view perfectly. With Papus, Sadhu completes Levi's vision of the esoteric Tarot.

He also gave Latin titles to the trumps, as well as Latin subtitles, which are always a joy to find.

http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p=3806832#post3806832
 

Sumada

Don't forget these!

Hi Ross,
Don't forget these!

Le Tarot de Marseille - Paul Marteau - 1949 Arts et Metiers Graphiques.

The Tarot Shows the Path - Rolla Nordic - my paperback reprint states first pub. 1960

How to Understand the Tarot - Frank Lind - 1969 Aquarian Press, but available to his students through the Insight Institute from the late '40s-early '50s. He was Richard Gardner's teacher.

Wisdom of the Tarot - Elizabeth Haich - 1969 J. Fink Verlag.

The Tarot Speaks - Richard Gardner - 1971 Rigel Press.

The Book of Tarot - Fred Gettings - 1973 pub. ?

The Mystical Tower of Tarot - John D. Blakeley - 1974 Robinson & Watkins Books Ltd.

The Tarot - Richard Cavendish - 1975 Michael Joseph Ltd.

A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism - Gareth Knight - the preface in my reprint is dated 1975.

The Flight of the Feathered Serpent - Peter Balin - 1978 Wisdom Garden Books

Also, Madeline Montalban wrote and published screeds during the 1950's via the English periodical called Prediction. Recently someone going by the handle of Auntie Tarot has uploaded most of her out-put here:- http://auntietarot.wordpress.com/tag/madeline-montalban/

Hope this is all of some help :~) but I'm sure there will actually be heaps more besides...

Cheers,

Adam
 

Lee

The Tarot Shows the Path - Rolla Nordic - my paperback reprint states first pub. 1960

How to Understand the Tarot - Frank Lind - 1969 Aquarian Press, but available to his students through the Insight Institute from the late '40s-early '50s. He was Richard Gardner's teacher.
Interestingly, from what I understand from "The History of the Occult Tarot," Nordic basically reproduced (without attribution) Lind's work. In turn, Sandor Konraad's "Classic Tarot Spreads" from the '80s reproduced these same tarot meanings (Nordic had been his teacher.)
 

Sumada

Theres been alot of appropriation over the years :)
But going back to the list...
...if a reprint of Waite makes the grade, then what about Wirth's Le Tarot des Images du Moyen Age - 1966 pub. Tchou?
And (glaring omission! ) Crowley's The Book of Thoth - 1944 but not sure who published it first.
Then there's John Starr Cooke's book for T:The New Tarot for the Aquarian Age - 1969 Western Star Press.

Ross, was your cut off date of 1980 based on the publication of Dummett's Game of Tarot by any chance?
 

Ross G Caldwell

Theres been alot of appropriation over the years :)
But going back to the list...
...if a reprint of Waite makes the grade, then what about Wirth's Le Tarot des Images du Moyen Age - 1966 pub. Tchou?
And (glaring omission! ) Crowley's The Book of Thoth - 1944 but not sure who published it first.
Then there's John Starr Cooke's book for T:The New Tarot for the Aquarian Age - 1969 Western Star Press.

Ross, was your cut off date of 1980 based on the publication of Dummett's Game of Tarot by any chance?

Thanks for your great list - some important ones in there - for French, Paul Marteau, I have to get that.

For the cut off date, I started in late 1979 with a gift of RWS (the ubiquitous 70s yellow box) and Eden Gray's Mastering the Tarot and Tarot Revealed. From then on, I kept up with - or at least pulse of - divinatory Tarot, so I feel comfortable with the lay of the land in the last 35 years.

But for what happened before then, I had no idea really. Of course Decker and Dummett History of the Occult Tarot is a good guide, but there's just too much; I want anecdotal accounts from real collectors and practitioners, whatever dusty little paper backs and out of the way stuff like Madeline Montalban (thanks very much!) to feel my way through those years.

So I suppose it is just coincidence that Game of Tarot came out that year (I didn't own a copy until 6 years ago). I'm not looking for "historical tarot" writing per se in any case, I have a thorough grasp of that.

I break Tarot down into six groups of literature (card decks themselves excluded for this purpose):

1. Lists of trumps, poems and appropriati (beginning in 15th century)
2. Rules of the game (beginning 1637 and early 17th century (for Bologna))
3. Esoteric (beginning 1781)
4. Divinatory (pre-1750 single instance for Bologna, really beginning with Etteilla)
5. Catalogues (beginning with discussions of engravings, but mostly starting in mid-19th century)
6. History (beginning really in 1980, but we can count some earlier works as attempts)

So keep 'em coming, along with observations. I like chains of influence like Lee mentions from Decker and Dummett (Konraad (meanings)-Lind-Nordic, etc.) - this means I can start to chart lines, and begin to pick books that way, instead of just trying to buy everything.

The 19th century is another matter, perhaps a little easier and clearer, and most of it is available on line somewhere or another. MikeH is doing a good job of putting Etteilla's work up - it is a thankless task in general, his writing is so obtuse.

I'll make a poster-sized chart, maybe get it printed finally, and share it if there seems to be interest.
 

_R_

Two of the most influential Tarot books in French are as follows:

Joseph Maxwell: "Le tarot : le symbole, les arcanes, la divination", Félix Alcan, 1933.

Gérard van Rijnberk: "Le tarot: histoire, iconographie, ésotérisme", Derain, 1947.

Both include highly detailed, annotated bibliographies, and along with Paul Marteau's "Tarot de Marseille", were reprinted in the last 30 years or so.