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This is a dust jacket for a parody book.
To begin with, there is an actual book called "Van Loon's Lives". It was written by Wilhelm Van Loon in 1942. Van Loon was sort of the Isaac Asimov of his day, though his subjects weren't science & history but the arts & history. Born in Holland, his view of his subject matter was decidedly European. Before the wear began, Van Loon fled the Nazis and continued writing in English in the U.S. In his lifetime he must have written dozens of books, and also a little like Asimov the contents were usually second hand knowledge (that he himself picked up in reading) and not especially deep.
"Van Loon's Lives" is a collection of dinners with history's famous. The idea is that the ghost of Erasmus, whom Van Loon admired, permits the author to request the presence of anyone he wants to have dinner with him, once a month. Van Loon is so classically educated and European in his world view, though, that you'd probably find a lot of the names obscure. It was a charming fancy, though.
Hendrik Van Loon was also a fairly talented, and colourful amateur artist. He illustrated all his own books.
I first learned of his "Lives" through a fan article, and a few years later located an original copy. Then by accident I acquired a second copy, sans dust jacket.
At what point I wrote my own fan parody of Van Loon's "Lives" I don't remember. But the long story I wrote featured imaginary characters from fandom, rather than famous people frm history. I added Saara Mar, naturally. Some details of the other characters appear in the follow-up posting, along with a close-up of the illustrated book spine.
When I acquired the extra copy without a dustjacket, I decided to create one of my own. It follows the design of the original loosely. There had to be a front cover, of course, but also an illustratetion for the spine, and a back cover blurb. I still have the extra copy and it's still protected by this artwork... though a plastic bag protects the whole.
I had planned to write a sequel to my original "Fan Loon's Lives", involving an idea borrowed from the famous story "The Monkey's Paw". Somehow I never got around to it. Perhaps for one thing, writing about real fans who had died was a dicey proposition. It would be very easy to cross the line in the matter of taste.
To begin with, there is an actual book called "Van Loon's Lives". It was written by Wilhelm Van Loon in 1942. Van Loon was sort of the Isaac Asimov of his day, though his subjects weren't science & history but the arts & history. Born in Holland, his view of his subject matter was decidedly European. Before the wear began, Van Loon fled the Nazis and continued writing in English in the U.S. In his lifetime he must have written dozens of books, and also a little like Asimov the contents were usually second hand knowledge (that he himself picked up in reading) and not especially deep.
"Van Loon's Lives" is a collection of dinners with history's famous. The idea is that the ghost of Erasmus, whom Van Loon admired, permits the author to request the presence of anyone he wants to have dinner with him, once a month. Van Loon is so classically educated and European in his world view, though, that you'd probably find a lot of the names obscure. It was a charming fancy, though.
Hendrik Van Loon was also a fairly talented, and colourful amateur artist. He illustrated all his own books.
I first learned of his "Lives" through a fan article, and a few years later located an original copy. Then by accident I acquired a second copy, sans dust jacket.
At what point I wrote my own fan parody of Van Loon's "Lives" I don't remember. But the long story I wrote featured imaginary characters from fandom, rather than famous people frm history. I added Saara Mar, naturally. Some details of the other characters appear in the follow-up posting, along with a close-up of the illustrated book spine.
When I acquired the extra copy without a dustjacket, I decided to create one of my own. It follows the design of the original loosely. There had to be a front cover, of course, but also an illustratetion for the spine, and a back cover blurb. I still have the extra copy and it's still protected by this artwork... though a plastic bag protects the whole.
I had planned to write a sequel to my original "Fan Loon's Lives", involving an idea borrowed from the famous story "The Monkey's Paw". Somehow I never got around to it. Perhaps for one thing, writing about real fans who had died was a dicey proposition. It would be very easy to cross the line in the matter of taste.
Category All / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1280 x 791px
File Size 255 kB
It wasn't very expensive when I acquired my two copies. Nor were any of Van Loon's books, really. I ended up with about 12 or 15 once people got the idea I collected them, but the funny thing was that I didn't. I was only interested in "Lives". Still, some of the other volumes were handsomely illustrated by the author, and make interesting keepsakes. His fictional account of the Nazi invasion of New York is a scream. According to Van Loon, he himself was almost target number one for the Gestapo once the city was under their control. True, Van Loon was a vigorous critic of the Nazis before and during the war. But I doubt he was anywhere near the top of the list of people Hitler wanted lined up against the wall and shot. That's another parallel with Asimov, I noted... a big ego. But I wonde if there's any more, or less, demand for Van Loon's books today. Sounds like something I ought to check out at ABEbooks online.
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