by Phil Sawyer
Rubber Dinosaurs and Wooden Elephants by L. Sprague de Camp.
This 144 page Borgo Press book came out in 1996. I think it’s one of the last books Sprague autographed for me. I have just finished re-reading it and it’s a lot of fun. There are 13 small chapters. Here goes:
(1.): In “Silent Specters, Spiders, and Sauropods” Sprague reviews some of the earliest movies he enjoyed. Sprague’s mother was much into “Russian tragedy of the heavy type.” So before and during WW1 Sprague did not like going to the movies. They were too disturbing and depressing. This changed in 1921 when Sprague viewed “The Mark of Zorro” with Douglas Fairbanks Sr. This was where Sprague discovered that a movie could be fun! The 1924 “Thief of Baghdad” Sprague considered a heroic fantasy. Sprague discusses how much Robert E. Howard loved the movies and where you can see cinematic influences in some of the Conan stories. Reading Sprague’s thoughts on the early movie scene is very enjoyable.
(2.): In Chapter #2 Sprague discusses the life and career of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. Fairbanks’ career faltered when the “talkies” began since Fairbanks had a high and light voice. Sprague also mentions the fact that the 1940 “Thief of Baghdad” showed Baghdad surrounded by towering mountains when in reality Baghdad inhabits the “widest, flattest plain on Earth.” Sprague still considered Fairbanks one of the greatest artists in the early history of the movies.
(3.): In Chapter #3 Sprague discusses the personal virtues and limitations of H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith. He analyzed them as having very outsized virtues and also outsized faults. Sprague emphasizes that they were all upright and honest men and that they were notably generous and unselfish. He notes that all three of them suffered from a lack of formal education.
On page #28 Sprague writes that “When my ‘Lovecraft’ biography came out, Lovecraftians castigated me for scolding the poor man for not being more practical and realistic. I later realized the merit in some of these objections. What happened was that in HPL I recognized some of my own faults. I have long struggled against them, with what success is not for me to say. So in chiding Lovecraft I was really chiding myself. When the paperback edition came out, I deleted most of my carping comments. An undergraduate at Brown University once reported seeing Lovecraft’s ghost. If I ever meet the phantom, I shall apologize for giving him rougher treatment than he really deserved.”
Sprague also tells about him and Catherine meeting CAS two weeks before Smith’s death.
(4.): Chapter #4 takes a look at HPL as a “failed aristocrat ” and why that type of outlook does not work very well if at all in modern America.
(5.): Here Sprague thinks about why Conan and his type of heroes are so popular? Sprague thinks that the illusion of the wild carefree adventurer will stay with us for a long time!
(6.): Sprague writes a little mini history of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Sprague focuses on the Martian stories. You can tell Sprague enjoyed them a lot even though he is careful to point out the many places where Burroughs could have done better.
(7.): In “Pseudohistory” Sprague discusses various popular but wrong ideas regarding the Ancient World. I like it where he tells us that the ancient Egyptians were not solemn mystics but that many of them were jolly extroverts who liked parties and picnics and lots of beer!
(8.): Here Sprague discusses various fictitious books from the world of fantasy. He also gets to write about P. G. Wodehouse! Sprague truly loved Wodehouse!
(9.): In Chapter #9 Sprague does a fine essay about the tyrant Dionysios, “The Man who invented R&D. He looms large in Sprague’s novel The Arrows of Hercules.
(10): Sprague recounts his adventures writing The Great Monkey Trial in Chapter #10. It’s a lot of fun.
The last three chapters concern “Lovecraft and the Aryans,” “Howard and the Celts,” and “The Heroic Barbarian.” This is a very interesting essay where Sprague recounts actual barbarians he knew and how they stacked up against Kull and Conan. I actually have these essays in a very small paperback pamphlet titled Blond Barbarians and Noble Savages. I think I will review them separately. They are extremely readable and I am glad they were reprinted.
If you can, find a copy of this book! Rereading it gave me a lot of pleasure and I am sure our fellowship would find it extremely pleasurable!
Yours in Crom
spraguedecampfan 