Herman Petrasch

[AshtonPage]

Hi Guys,

I recorded Dr. Glover’s presentation at the rendezvous. I remember it being about an hour long, so I don’t think there will be transcriptions any time soon. But here’s the synopsis (keep in mind this is going from memory and also my interpretation of what Dr. Glover said).

Although Sims was a newspaper man, what he tried to get published was essentially his scattered collection of notes. No publisher would touch it because it was not a cohesive story. If I understood correctly, Sims notes jumped around a lot; Interviews with Julia, then Mr. Brown, the story of Doc Thorne, then back to Julia and so forth. Eventually an editor, John Willey took on the task of re-writing Sims notes into a cohesive story….. one with intrigue, suspense and interest. In other words, John Willey took Sims Notes and put together a script that would sell.

Reading The Golden Dream pg 30 “What is not commonly known is that Ely’s Book, The Lost Dutchman Mine, was written by two people, Sims Ely and his editor, John Willey of William Morrow and Co. who published the book. Ely’s natural style coupled with Willey’s polishing and rewrites have made Ely’s The Lost Dutchman Mine the classic of Dutchman lore.”

Like I haven’t opened a can of worms already, my take is that while this puts some credibility back in Barks Notes (as Bark was Sims partner) the big question is: just how much “artistic liberty” did John Willey take in rewriting Sims Notes? Do we have Sims Notes? I did ask about Barks “40 questions to Reiney” and was told the questions were mainly regarding confirmation of geographic locations in the hills. Which leads me to believe that there WERE directions in the original Barks Notes that we do not have in the copies of Bark’s Notes that are in circulation today. Which means there are (probably) directions missing from Sims Notes that we don’t have access to either. I’ve always said that for a book on “how to find the LDM” the one thing that is conspicuously missing is “how to find the LDM” viz. the directions.

I am anxiously waiting for Dr. Glover’s next book, which is due to be published any time now. Hopefully that will clear things up a bit. In the mean time, I’ve more-or-less been on hold.


Best,

Ashton