Frank Paul Shonfeld
Founder of the
Chain
of Friendship
Frank Shonfeld's visit to the U.S.A. in 1985
All year I had been making plans for Frank Shonfeld's visit to the United
States. It was Frank's third visit to North America, and the second annual
ECOF reunion, this time hosted by George McWhorter in Louisville, Kentucky.
I wanted Frank to see as much as possible of the southeast on this visit,
after his extensive tour of eastern Canada last August. We finally agreed
on a month's visit, two weeks with me, a week with George, and a week with
Bill Ross in Maryland.
At last June 13th arrived and Frank headed to Gatwick airport in London
to fly British Caledonian to Atlanta. His first surprise was to discover
that British Caledonian had so many passengers that they had had to rent
extra aircraft to meet their needs. So Frank found himself boarding a Royal
Jordanian jet for the flight. With all the highjackings and bombings associated
with the Middle East, it was not a welcome change, but the flight was uneventful
except for the noisy passengers and the strange accents of the flight attendants.
The flight arrived on time in Atlanta, and I was waiting at the "only
gate" international flight passengers could appear in (according to the staff)
at the Atlanta airport. Naturally I had been misinformed, and Frank had entered
the main terminal by another entrance. We each waited, milling about, for
three quarters of an hour, before accidentally bumping into one another while
trying to get the airport staff to help us locate one another. After finding
one another at last, we were ready to load Frank's little bag in the car
and head home to Montgomery. We talked about the changes in Frank's flight,
what plans Frank's sister, Betty, had made for her month back in Croydon,
and our plans for the next two weeks.
We had been quite worried about the possible effects of the weather
on Frank's health, as Alabama had just been through a record setting heat
wave with one day at 103 degrees! In contrast, London's weather had been
unseasonable cold and wet, and Frank had been wearing an overcoat out the
same week.
Fortunately a cold front passed through Alabama the following day, and
temperatures moderated for most of the week Frank was in Montgomery with
us. We had cloudy skies, afternoon thundershowers, and cool nights for the
first several days of his visit. The weather gradually warmed during the
week, so that Frank finally experienced some typically hot and muggy Alabama
summertime. Frank bought himself some short pants and was soon dressing like
a southerner. By the end of the week he was even picking up a bit a of tan,
which I hope lasted long enough for him to show it off to his mates when
he returned to England.
I had been working on a ceramics Jetan set during the month of May,
and had managed to get the board and all 40 playing pieces carved during
May, but still needed to get the set glazed and fired if I was going to carry
it to Louisville to show at the ERB exhibition. So most days that first week
were spent in the ceramics lab with me furiously painting glazes onto the
chess set while Frank read various books and ERB fanzines from my collection.
Actually that was probably a nice opportunity for Frank to look at fanzine
literature that he had never seen before. He was able to work through about
20 years worth of ERBania, ERB-dom, and some of the Burroughs Bulletins,
plus such things as the Heins' Bibliography and The Reader's Guide to Barsoom
and Amtor. Naturally, we also spent a couple of days making a tour of my
book collection, especially the bookcases of my ERB collection. Since I have
focused on collecting variant editions of all ERB's works, patterned after
the Heins' Bibliography, it was Frank's first opportunity to look at some
of the variant editions, and he seemed quite fascinated by it all. (I was
pleased to be able to show my collection off before he saw the Louisville
collection or Bill Ross', both of which dwarf mine!)
We also did a little sightseeing in Montgomery, seeing quite a bit of
Huntingdon College where I teach, and Auburn University in Montgomery where
Linda teaches. On Friday afternoon, our last day in town, we drove downtown
and visited the Alabama Archives and History Museum, the Little White House
of the Confederacy (Jefferson Davis' first presidential home), and the State
Capitol building. We also took Frank to see several movies, THE SEVEN SAMURAI
(1954), PRIZZI'S HONOR, PARIS, TEXAS, and BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET. And
we did our best to expose Frank to southern style cooking.
During that week he sampled bar-be-qued pork, southern fried chicken,
collard greens, black-eyed peas, fried okra, grits, cornbread, sweet potatoes,
and had typically heavy doses of fresh tomatoes and iced tea. And he had
fruit cobblers and pecan pie in restaurants the following week.
On Saturday morning, June 22 we packed the car and drove 90 miles north
to Birmingham to spend the weekend with Bill and Anne Campbell. Bill was
my first ERB collecting friend, and we've known each other for nearly 20
years. Bill's grandson, a three year old, was visiting too, so Frank got
to see the elaborate Showbiz Pizza Parlor and try pizza, though he wasn't
too impressed. (I don't think he was too impressed with all the southern
food either, but he never showed it, being the gentleman that he is.) We
three then headed downtown to the Birmingham Art Museum to see the very fine
traveling Armand Hammer art exhibition, which has been touring the country.
Frank enjoyed the three or four centuries of art on display, though the walk
through tired him out a bit. Later we met Bill and Anne at a local French
restaurant for supper, also picking up my favorite aunt to join us, and Frank
tried crepes for supper. My aunt regaled him with stories of my boyhood escapades
and we had a most amusing evening.
Sunday we declared a lazy day, spending most of the time in and around
the lovely little pool at Bill and Anne's house. Frank did not enter the
water, but he did lounge in the lounge chair like he was born to that lifestyle.
Sunday was also the day for Frank to get a tour of Bill's collection. It
is nice that Bill's and my collecting interests complement each other more
than they duplicate each other, so again Frank got to see a number of new
things. Bill has made quite a nice collection of ERB imitators, such as Otis
Adelbert Kline, Ray Cummings, and George M. Farley, both in book and pulp
magazine appearances, as well as other pulp era interests in western and
scientific romance categories. Bill also has an extensive Big-Little-Book
and character watch and memorabilia collection which Frank enjoyed examining.
On Monday morning Linda, Frank, and I drove north again. We had lunch
in Trenton, Georgia, and spent the afternoon seeing the sights of Lookout
Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We visited the Civil War battlefields
and some typical homes preserved from that era, as well as having a brief
scare when the car stalled up on top of the mountain. We drove on northeast
to Knoxville in the late afternoon to visit briefly with some of our friends
there, and had a quick hamburger before driving the last hour to our motel
in Townsend, Tennessee, just outside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Tuesday we spent making a tour of the Smokies, showing Frank the very
elaborate visitor's center, Sugarlands, just inside the park, then a scenic
drive over the crest of the mountains at New Found Gap, then down into North
Carolina to Cherokee, where we had lunch and toured the Cherokee Indian Museum.
Returning on the same path we stopped at an old water turbine powered grist
mill and a recreation of an early nineteenth century farm on the eastern
border of the park. We then took another road to Pigeon Forge, just west
of the park, where we visited the famous pottery shop, and then into Gatlinburg
for a bit of sightseeing and supper. Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg represent
the "tourist trap" aspect of the Smokies. In Gatlinburg we window shopped
a bit and took in the giant curved screen Imax-type theater for a 15 minute
film of helicopter flights, roller coaster rides, etc. We finished with a
fine meal at one of Gatlinburg's nicest restaurants, The Burning Bush.
Wednesday morning we took a quick car tour of Cades Cove, a fair sized
valley within the park which has been preserved in the style of a nineteenth
century farming community with cabins, barns, churches, and even an operating
corn grist mill powered by a water wheel. After that our friends from Knoxville,
Fred and Maria Smith, joined us for lunch at the motel, and then an afternoon
of sightseeing. We started with Tuckalatchee Caverns, a fair sized limestone
cave there in Townsend. It was really quite an interesting hour of spelunking,
and we all enjoyed it, though I must confess a good bit of guilt over the
number of steep steps that Frank had to climb in the course of the tour.
It just about wore him out. Fred then drove us south along the western border
of the park to the area of Fontana Dam and lake, showing Frank an old style
country store and some truly torturous winding mountain roads along the way.
But the scenery was lovely and the huge dam, among the biggest east of the
Mississippi River was quite a sight. We returned to Townsend for another
supper and much needed night's sleep. Frank had another bother here, as the
motel changed his room on him without informing him, and he had to get that
straightened out before he could get to bed.
Thursday morning Frank had his first angina attack, so we knew we had
better slow down a bit. We drove back to Cades Cove in the morning for another
car trip, but took more time so Frank could see more of the sights. We again
saw numerous deer and woodchucks Thursday, and also a huge wild turkey, one
of the rarer animal sightings of the park. We stopped at the mill and saw
the farming displays there too. For lunch we drove to Elkmont, about midway
up in altitude within the park for lunch at the Wonderland Hotel, a lovely
little commercial hotel run by the U.S. government in the center of the park.
We then drove back through the park and to the motel for a change of clothes.
Then we drove into Knoxville for a fine dinner at Ye Olde Steak House (Linda's
and my favorite restaurant from the five years we lived in Knoxville) and
a look at our old house, a drive through the University of Tennessee campus,
and visits with both the Smiths and with the Echternachts, my major professor
from graduate school and his wife. Unfortunately their 16 year old son, Scott,
whom I have interested in Burroughs was not there to meet Frank. But we enjoyed
the visits and they certainly enjoyed meeting Frank.
On Friday morning we loaded the car again and headed for Kentucky. Our
drive north to Lexington was through some very pretty mountainous terrain.
At Lexington we turned west into the bluegrass country and arrived in Louisville
in mid afternoon. Frank and I had been suffering from mild colds for the
past week and were finally getting over them, but this was the day that Linda
took sick, which somewhat spoiled Friday and Saturday for her. We got checked
in at the dorm after a quick trip to the Elkstrom Library where we discovered
a number of our friends and fellow ERB fans were already here. Mike Conran
helped us get situated in the dorm and I made my apologies for not arriving
a day sooner, as I had led George to believe we would. The wine and cheese
reception at the Library was very nice and the ERB display George had set
up in the Rare Book Department's lobby was magnificent. Fred and Wanda Lukas
were there, though Joe Lukes could not make it at the last minute. (We found
out he has been transferred to Vancouver, B.C., and this sudden move kept
him away.) Bill and Kathy Ross, Shawn Cassidy, Pete Ogden, Brad Bowman, John
F. Roy, Joe Wilcoxen, Scott Reynolds, Ralph Brown and his family, among my
pen pals and acquaintances, were there. It was my first chance to meet Ralph
and I'm sorry I didn't have more time to spend with him. Of course, the guests
of honor, Danton Burroughs and Burne Hogarth were there too, and it was a
real treat for me to meet them for the first time. Both of them very much
wanted to see Frank. It was Danton's first meeting with Frank, and Burne's
second, as Frank had given Burne a tour of London only a few weeks before.
I met a number of new ERB friends for the first time, including Kevin Julius,
Tom Lindgren, Geno Amatangelo, Brian Bohnett, Phil Burgher, Joan and Rich
Dumont, Richard Hrapcak, Peter Link, Tony Menegazzo, John McGuigan, Bobbie
Rucker, and the other English ERB fan contingent, Frank and Doreen
Westwood, plus Lawrence Dunn and Ken Hall, who had been touring the southeastern
states a bit themselves. I also met a number of the members of the ERB Amateur
Press Association who made the Louisville meeting, such as Bob Barrett, Joan
Bledig, and Jack Daley. A few of us went for supper after the party to Jerry's
restaurant, and then Frank, Linda and I returned to the dorm to go to bed.
I gather others of the folks stayed up pretty late. As I was to be in charge
of the dorm accommodations, I had some towels and room keys to pass out,
but Mike Conran really did more of that than I did. He was up on the 10th
floor, the bachelor accommodations, while we were on the 2nd, reserved for
couples.
On Saturday we slept a bit late, but got over to the Rare Book Room
by late morning. We spent several hours visiting, looking at the photo albums
and items to buy or trade that several fans had brought. I had put my Jetan
set into one of the display cases on Friday and I hope folks enjoyed seeing
it. I know I enjoyed seeing the fantastic display George had set up in the
cases, particularly the personal mementoes of ERB and inscribed books from
ERB to John Coleman Burroughs, all of which are on loan to the Louisville
collection from Danton Burroughs. Although George gave a number of guided
tours back into the ERB stacks, I did not take one, as I had seen them on
earlier visits. We also missed the showing of GREYSTOKE and Denny Miller's
TARZAN THE APE MAN, but did see the serial episode of Elmo Lincoln. A number
of us again went out to lunch and then we all gathered in the little theater
next to Rare Books in the afternoon to see the hour's worth of home movies
of ERB and family, again provided by Danton, that George has had transcribed
onto videotape. For all of us, this was certainly one of the high points
of the weekend, as Danton narrated the scenes and we saw ERB referee a wrestling
match, saw him play with his children at various ages, saw his sheepdog,
Tarzan, and various aspects of the Tarzana ranch, footage of Emma Burroughs,
of Joan and Jim Pierce, and most surprising of all, perhaps, some test footage
of animation John Coleman Burroughs did for John Carter of Mars. This included
brief scenes of the legs of a thoat moving at a gallop, and of John Carter
jumping great distances on Barsoom, finally jumping up to land on a Martian
scout flier passing overhead. I got a number of autographs in the afternoon
and was even one of the lucky winners when Burne Hogarth raffled off the
individual plates from a King Arthur portfolio he had brought. What an exciting
afternoon that was!
In the evening we went to Mastersons for the banquet. I carried both
camera and tape recorder, and was able to tape all of George's and Danton's
remarks, and part of the two hour talk and slide show given by Burne Hogarth
after our wonderful dinner. Danton spoke about his feelings at being with
ERB fans as well as some news about the affairs and future plans at
ERB, Inc. Burne Hogarth talked about the need to keep ERB's characters before
the public eye, and then gave a long talk on the image of Tarzan as he drew
him in his book versions of TARZAN OF THE APES and JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN.
WHAT AN EVENING THAT WAS! Unfortunately, Frank had a fairly serious fainting
spell during Hogarth's talk, and had to leave the room for a few minutes.
Slowly he recovered and was able to hear most of Hogarth's talk. In addition
to Linda and I sitting with him, Danton and a few others slipped over to
check on him, and Joe Wilcoxen, who is a doctor, sat with us for the rest
of the evening. I suspect it was just the excitement of the evening, and
possibly the temperature and rich food, and all the flash photography that
got Frank down. After the banquet we headed back to the dorm for some sleep,
though I gather it was another all nighter for some of the younger fellows.
Sunday was to have been spent at the Rare Book Room, but it had to be
locked we discovered late on Saturday. I did do some picture taking of the
contents of the display cases on Saturday, but I think a number of the fellows
were counting having on more time to look on Sunday, especially for tours
of the stacks with George. We had lunch with a number of our friends and
spent the afternoon out on the green in front of the library, watching and
feeding the tame squirrels and pigeons, or just visiting. Linda napped for
a while in the room and Frank and I just took it easy, sitting on the park
bench. In the late afternoon we all drove over to George's house for more
visiting, although some of the guests, including Danton Burroughs and Burne
Hogarth flew out of town that afternoon. Eventually we went back over to
Mastersons for a steak and eggs supper about 9 p.m. Then it was back to the
dorm for Linda, Frank and I. Over the weekend I also made a 90 minute interview
with Frank on tape to record some of his memories about his life as an ERB
fan. (I'll be typing that up to be a separate article.)
Monday morning we got up fairly early, packed the car, said goodbye
to Mike Conran and his son, Chris, Kevin Julius, and a couple of the other
fellows in the dorm, and walked over to the library. Frank would be staying
on with George for the next week, while we had a 10 hour drive ahead of us.
Frank was tired but feeling alright and I hope he had a marvelous week with
George. I know we hated to say goodbye to him after enjoying his company
and getting to know him as such a kind and easygoing friend over the last
two and a half weeks.
We decided to stop for breakfast at Hardee's on the way out of town
and ran into Mike Conran and the other fellows one last time. Then we headed
south. We had lunch in Nashville, made a short stop in Birmingham to see
my aunt, and still got back to Montgomery by suppertime.
Pete Ogden drove home from Louisville on Tuesday. He arrived at our
house in the early evening. He was nice enough to run his copy
of THE LION MAN with Jon Hall (based on THE LAD AND THE LION) for me that
evening. I also gave him a tour of my book collection. Then he spent the
night with us and drove home to Tampa on Wednesday morning. Frank and Doreen
Westwood, plus Lawrence Dunn and Ken Hall, were to have stopped in town on
their way to Florida to see us. But unfortunately they had to change their
plans and did not make it.
I have not yet heard anything about the week Frank spent with George.
I'm sure he had plenty of time to delve into the ERB stacks in the Rare Book
Room. And I'm sure he enjoyed getting to know George. He had trouble with
a delayed flight going from Louisville to Baltimore with a change of planes
midway in Cincinnati. But he did get safely to Bill Ross's house and spent
the next week there. Bill and Kathy kept Frank at home more, so he could
rest, because he had continued to have some heart "flutters," as he calls
them. Bill showed Frank his own collection, which must have been a great
treat for Frank. One day Bill drove Frank through some of the classic sights
of Washington, D.C., though they did not get out and do any walking, and
then to see Mt. Vernon, this time they did a little walking around. And Kathy
Ross drove him around Annapolis, Maryland, another day to see those sights.
Somehow I goofed in booking Frank's flight back to Atlanta, so that his trip from Baltimore to Atlanta was scheduled for Monday, July 15, while his return flight to England was from Atlanta on Tuesday. Bill did a lot of calling, including to me, to try to get this straightened out, but changing the flight time was going to cost Frank $225. So Bill convinced him to spend the night in a Holiday Inn in Atlanta, that being cheaper than paying the difference to change flight days. So off Frank went, not too happy at having to get around in Atlanta on his own. I wish I could have driven over to meet him myself, but I had started back to work teaching summer school that day. Bill called me that night, frantic, because Frank had not checked into the motel in Atlanta. We really didn't know what to think, as we had left Frank in the hands of the folks at Delta Airlines to be routed to the motel limo in Atlanta. Finally Bill called Betty the next morning about 10 a.m., thinking he would have to report that we had managed to lose Frank in Atlanta. But as good fortunes would have it, the folks at Delta in Atlanta found out Frank could have a seat on the Monday evening British Caledonian flight to London, and so got him on it. So Frank is now safely back home, and not too much (I hope) the worse for wear after his month in America.
Jim Thompson's "Interview with Frank Shonfeld, June 27, 1985, at the Louisville ECOF" appeared originally in two parts in ERB-APA #13 and ERB-APA #20.
Jim: Frank, when were you born?
Frank: I was born on the fifth of October, 1904.
Jim: Where?
Frank: In my father's home, which was a tailor's shop.
Jim: How old were you when you discovered the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs?
Frank: I was about 21 or 22, and it was quite by a strange incident that I ever did so, because I had bought my weekly "Boy's Cinema", which I'd had for quite a number of years, and on opening it I found the beginning of the new serial by Edgar Rice Burroughs, "The Son of Tarzan." Having read the story I then found that not only was there a photograph of Edgar Rice Burroughs on one of the pages but it also gave at the bottom Edgar Rice Burroughs and his address, and this address intrigued me because I was a very imaginative sort of person in those days and having liked the earlier books of Edgar Rice Burroughs and this new one, I took a dare and wrote a letter to Edgar Rice Burroughs and sent it to him at his address: Mr. Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzana Ranch, Reseda, California.
Jim: And what year was this?
Frank: This was 1921.
Jim: How old were you at that time?
Frank: About 26[16?]. I don't know whether you can imagine with what trepidation I felt putting the letter into the letter box and waiting for and hoping for a reply. This however came about a
fortnight or three weeks later, and this was the first letter that I had had from Edgar Rice Burroughs, and it was the beginning of a never ending backward and forward exchange of letters right up to the time when America entered the war.
Jim: Do you remember anything of the contents of that first letter you wrote, or any of his first reply?
Frank: I really can't. Oh, unfortunately, the earlier letters of Edgar Rice Burroughs were burned in my flat which was the biggest disaster I have ever had.
Jim: So you corresponded with Burroughs from 1921 until the start of World War Two. Prior to the war what sorts of things did you write about?
Frank: I could only write about hoping to have a new book or something like that. I dare-n't say anything about my position, where I lived, where I was at that moment, and what I was doing,
because I was then in the army, and had I written anything of where I was situated, and stationed, it would have not only been taken out but I would have probably, well, fall [sic] in deep waters for it. Ha.
Jim: At some point Burroughs moved to Hawaii.
Frank: Oh, yes. He'd been over to Hawaii several times and it was his permanent address during the war. Not that he was there very often. But it was to Hawaii that I still continued to write to him and I always had to wait for an address and always had to wait for an answer because one didn't know how how long he would be away from the island, anymore than I knew where I would be at any given time.
Jim: Didn't you have some concern when you heard of the bombing of Pearl Harbor?
Frank: Yes, I did. As soon as I heard on the radio news in England that Pearl Harbor had been bombed, my first thought was of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Having already been in contact with him when he was at Tarzana, I immediately sent off a cablegram to John Coleman Burroughs, asking to be given any news of his father. Eventually by very quick return I, too, had a cablegram from John Coleman, telling me that his father was quite safe, and he ended with "Thanks for inquiring about Dad."
Jim: During the war, while Burroughs was traveling around the Pacific, you were serving with the antiaircraft forces there in Great Britain.
Frank: Yes, that's what I was doing. But it was not with aeroplanes, it was with guns and whatever we had. So as soon as an air raid was called or a warning came of an enemy aircraft in our vicinity we had to immediately go to stations and do our duty.
Jim: Burroughs, inquired, did he not, about the conditions in England during the war?
Frank: No, it wasn't quite that. It was much later when war had finished and we all began to feel the drag of the cost of the war, because things were very, very difficult in those days. Are you reading up to the food? That would be 1950.
Jim: Well, let's hold off on that for a minute. Thinking about the war, didn't Burroughs from time to time tell you humorous events that happened in the course of his war correspondent activities in his letters?
Frank: Oh, he did and the amazing thing is that all his letters came through to me without having been searched. He was always joyful and always on the bright and funny side of things. His
letters of those days were very, very encouraging for me. He would describe things to me, the situation in Hawaii itself. This consisted of different kinds of people who had now come to the
island. How they were coping or having coped, and particularly he liked to describe the kind of games that were played on the island. The amusing thing being that each of two sides at whatever game it might be was not entirely a white man's game because there was a collection of various races all collected and all playing very good games.
Jim: At the close of the war, when peace came, England was still having a difficult time economically?
Frank: There is one thing that happened, once or twice, during the war itself. And how they got to me is quite a mystery. But Burroughs sent me several of his books as they came off print. In all I had about seven and these seven I've got now. And one of them, The Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County, he took the trouble to write a short message to me, ". . . hope everything would turn out all right," and he hoped that the books would also amuse some of my friends if I would like to send them around.
Jim: And, did you do that?
Frank: I did, to the closest friends I've had in wartime.
Jim: You say that these books are still in your collection, because you lost the early part of your collection. Tell us about that.
Frank: The loss of my collection was because when I was called up for war, I put all my possessions and all my books into boxes and put those boxes into the loft of my house. But, unfortunately, in the latter part of the war over England, we had one or two air raids as we had not had them before. For the Germans dropped firebombs on the towns and one came through my roof and burned out practically everything I had got [sic] in the small room. Fortunately, those that he had sent to me, I had packed away in a cupboard away from the attic so I've still got those various books that he sent to me.
Jim: Can you recall the contents in general that were lost?
Frank: All the letters that I'd had from Edgar Rice Burroughs from the very beginning, I had put into boxes and placed in the attic, along with all my other books. But, unfortunately, the fire that ruined my attic, ruined all those letters and I've not got any of them at all left now.
Jim: And you also lost all your copies of the "Boy's Cinema" magazine.
Frank: Yes. I had collected a number of the "Boy's Cinema" magazines, especially those with the Burroughs' serials, but they all perished in the fire.
Jim: And earlier paperback and hardback printings of his books that you had saved?
Frank: Yes, anything Edgar Rice Burroughs that I had had was all destroyed except the books that he had sent me himself, and these, as I said I put away in another part of the house, so I still
have those. When the time came, I then had to start researching for the missing books, and to make up my library of Edgar Rice Burroughs' works.
Jim: How many years after the war do you think it took to restore your set of Burroughs' works in your own collection?
Frank: It took me a long time, because these were pretty hard [to get] in this country, and I believe at that time Mr. Burroughs was also busy, not only in Hawaii, but at his office and I got very little opportunity of buying new books for a long time. This coming up to about the late sixties.
Jim: During Burroughs' last years of life, after the war ended, you continued your correspondence?
Frank: As the war finished, both of us, he and I, resumed our exchange of letters, as we had been doing before the war.
Jim: Did he not send you another surprise, after the war?
Frank: There was another surprise somewhere about 1946 or '47. I had a letter from Ralph Rothmund, his secretary, telling me that Mr. Burroughs had asked him to do the following for him. And the following was to make up three or four parcels, in cartons, of ordinary food, and send them to me. The outcome of that letter was that I had one box with only one article in it, which was a ham. All the other four boxes included anything and everything that could be put into boxes and sent away, even down to small vials of vinegar and such things like that, mustard, pepper, and all that kind of thing. Also in which he sent over was an absolute godsend, because, as you may imagine, things were very, very dreadful in England in those days.
Jim: What did you do with this surprise gift of food, four boxes full?
Frank: Well, my mother, and my sister, and myself, we sat down and tried to work out what we could do. It was decided that we would hold one big family reunion and that is what happened. The girls all went quite a good speed with preparing food from the food that was in the four boxes. The outcome of it was that we must have had the biggest food on a table at that time of year at war than anywhere else. It was a wonderful thing and it really had a poor effect on us because we were eating food that was rich and good, but we had not been used to this kind of food for several years. And the result was that most of us fell rather ill for a day or so. But, nevertheless, it was well worth it! [chuckles]
Jim: What can you recall about the last few letters you had from Burroughs before his death?
Frank: His letters before his death were still very friendly to me but they were very short. He always apologized that he got [sic] so much to do.
Jim: Didn't he have a special name that he addressed you with in his letters?
Frank: When I had correspondence with Dan [He means ERB.], he always--well, in the first two or three letters he wrote me, it was to Mr. Shonfeld, but suddenly he began putting "My dear friend", and that's how it was for quite a long time. But as soon as the war broke out and I informed him of this, all his letters then were sent to my home address for furthering on, and it was always addressed to me. He always addressed me in the letter as "My Dear Sergeant." That was the rank that I was holding.
Jim: Did that nickname continue in the letters after the war?
Frank: The nickname did not follow me after the war. As soon as it was over he reverted to Frank again.
Jim: You also wrote a number of letters to Ralph Rothmund. Can you recall anything about your letters from Rothmund?
Frank: I only had three or four Rothmund letters. He was always very friendly and always wanting to know if there was something he could do, but I always wrote back and said, "Thanks, but I think enough has been done."
Jim: And was there not a woman who was a secretary in the office, that you corresponded with sometimes.
Frank: Oh, yes. Let me see what her name was.
Jim: Was it Mildred? [Mildred Bernard Jensen?]
Frank: Alice, Alice. No, that doesn't sound right.
Jim: Just talk about her, we'll think of her name later. Recall the letters to and from her.
Frank: One sidetrack of Burroughs' letters was that in the early days he used to dictate his letters to a secretary. One day I had a letter from California, and on opening it I found that it was the secretary that was writing to me, and she made one or two inquiries about me, and hoped I didn't mind her writing to me. And I wrote back and she wrote back and I wrote back and that went on for three or four years. And suddenly she said that she was going to go down to Mexico, not to Mexico, I can't remember where it was she was going. Yes, she was going down to Mexico, from where she would then send me her address, but, unfortunately, the address never came and I ever heard anything more from her.
Jim: Didn't you begin corresponding with both of Burroughs' sons even before Edgar Rice Burroughs passed away?
Frank: Oh, yes, that had happened quite a long time earlier, because on receiving John Coleman's letter or cablegram that his father was quite safe, I wrote back to thank him and made it in to
kind of a letter and he wrote back and that was the start of a correspondence we had right up to the time of John Coleman's death.
Jim: What do you remember of your relationship with John Coleman Burroughs?
Frank: John was a very, very, chatty person in letters and on one letter he told me to look out for a parcel that he was forwarding to me. Eventually the parcel came and I found out that inside was a painting that he had done. I'll describe it the nearest I can. It was on paper, about twelve inches deep and eight or nine inches wide. In the top corner in color paint, in the top left hand corner is John Carson [Frank was momentarily confusing the name of our Canadian pen pal with the character], John Carter; on the right hand top corner is Dejah Thoris; on the bottom left corner was David Innes and opposite that was Tars Tarkas; and in the very center it showed a beautiful painting of Tarzan and a striped back of a lion. This was all done in beautiful colors and at the bottom of the paint, he put in writing to me, "To Frank Paul Shonfeld, with my best wishes and congratulations," and it was not until weeks later, that in one of his letters that he told me that this was a once only painting. He had never done the same before. That he'd never do the same again. [Frank donated this original art to the University of Louisville collection at ECOF 1985.]
Jim: Later didn't they ask for you to send them a photograph of that painting?
Frank: Some while later, John Coleman Burroughs was ailing in health. He was stricken, but more really with his hands. He couldn't use them at all. He got his son, Danton, to write me a
letter, which he dictated to his son. The letter was to describe to him in a letter the kind of thing that he had done in that picture that he had painted for me, because he could not remember what it looked like. So, instead of doing that, I managed to get it copied [photographed] in color at the same size, and I sent it to him. Danton told me afterwards when he was thanking me for sending it over, that his father took one look at the painting and he started to cry. And it was only a short while after that that he, too, died.
Jim: You also corresponded with Hulbert Burroughs, did you not?
Frank: Yes, that began about the late fifties or the early sixties. Because it was sometime in nineteen sixty-odd that he came over to London on business and from there he telephoned me and asked if it would be convenient for him to come down to my home. Which, of course, I said yes. He came down with a fellow that he'd come over to see, and he stayed at my place for, oh, about midafternoon til early evening, lookin' at my books, and mainly talking. But the rather amusing, well not so much amusing, the wonderful thing that I thought about it all was that Hully came into the room and I introduced him to my mother and sister. My mother was then somewhere in her early nineties. Most of the time, Hully was sitting down on one knee at the corner of the sofa on which my mother was sitting, and he was holding one of her hands. And most of my conversation about various items and all that, he only just nodded, because he was so intent on speakin' to my mother. Anyhow, soon afterwards I had a surprise packet from him containing the book of I Am a Barbarian.
Jim: Did he inscribe it?
Frank: Oh, yes. He inscribed it to me, to Frank Paul Shonfeld, and some very nice remarks made underneath that.
Jim: Didn't he continue corresponding with you for some time after?
Frank: Oh yes, yes, he carried on correspondence, just like his father did, and just like John Coleman did. As soon as I sent a letter back, he would send a letter back, except on one or two occasions, especially late summer, he would take his son up into the mountains, or on other kinds of holidays.
Jim: Did Hully continue to send regards to your mother for the rest of her life?
Frank: Oh, yes. He never forgot my mother, because in every letter he wrote he always wished my mother very good health.
Jim: Didn't you once request a beer mat from Hully?
[Frank: Oh . . . uummm . . . Yes, in those days (pause) . . . What's the posh name for collecting? Jim: Acquiring? Frank: No, no, I was proud of it to say that I was a "something-ist." I can't recall. . . Anyhow . . . ]
Frank: In those days I was an avid collector of what is known in England as beer mats, but in America as coasters. But that I didn't know when I wrote a letter to Hully asking him if he would be able to send me just three or four beer mats over for my collection. And he wrote back and said, "What in the deuce's name is a beer mat? I can't do anything about it until you tell me." So I wrote back and told him what it was, and he wrote back and enlightened me by the American way of calling it a coaster. And with it came about a dozen little collectors' beer mats from he had collected from here and there.
Jim: Some of which were the Burroughs character coasters?
Frank: No.
Jim: But he did send you some Burroughs character coasters, didn't he?
Frank: Oh yes, he also, a little later on, sent me the first two Tarzan coasters, which are a very delightful couple. They certainly were not in my collection of ordinary beer mats because I had them on display all the time. And then, a little later on, he sent me another one, of John Carter of Mars, and the last one was the actual reproduction of the cover of Tarzan and "The Foreign Legion."
Jim: Did you ever correspond with Joan Burroughs Pierce?
Frank: Yes, I did correspond with Jim Pierce and it was very early on too. I can't quite remember how I did begin the correspondence. But we carried on, backward and forward, with letters. I always sent him a Christmas card. He always sent me a Christmas card. His letters were very, very interesting to read.
Jim: Did you ever correspond directly with his wife, Joan Burroughs Pierce?
Frank: Strangely enough, I never did send even one letter to Joan Burroughs Pierce. But her name was always mentioned in her husband's letters to me.
Jim: Didn't you correspond with his son as well?
Frank: Yes, I can't quite recall . . . oh, it was when Michael Pierce came into the office to work in the office.
Jim: So that would have been in the late nineteen seventies?
Frank: I suppose it would, yes.
Jim: What sort of correspondence did you carry on with Michael Pierce?
Frank: Oh, we touched on all different kind of topics. He was a most interesting fellow to chat with, to write to. And eventually on one day in London I did get to meet him. We had a wonderful evening together.
Jim: Did you get to meet at your home, with Michael Pierce?
Frank: Oh, no, we arranged to meet in London.
Jim: Just you and Michael Pierce?
Frank: The occasion of my meeting with Michael Pierce arose from a phone chat that I had with Frank Westwood. He told me that he was meeting Michael in London, and I said, well, so am I. He was takin' Doreen with him, and I was takin' my sister, Betty. The four of us went up to London together. And Michael was a really wonderful fellow. He was one of those people you liked instantly. His conversation was on the same order as your own conversation. Then we went to a hotel and had dinner and it was quite late when we all parted to come home again.
Jim: Wasn't it a rather elaborate dinner?
Frank: Oh, yes, it was a very elaborate dinner. There were five of us and we had five waiters attending us, one waiter to each person (laughs).
Jim: Didn't most of Burroughs' family members exchange photographs with you as well?
Frank: I had one or two different photographs from Edgar Rice Burroughs, himself, but from nearly all the others I had photographs as well.
Jim: Do you still have those photographs?
Frank: I still have them, yes. Then the time came, when, unfortunately, which is a bad loss to the company, when Michael died, and then, trying to step into his shoes, came his son, Christian. And he and I began to correspond together. This was late in the first generation of correspondence I was having, or would be having, with the Edgar Rice Burroughs family.
Jim: There's another grandson that you correspond with, isn't there, Danton?
Frank: Danton, yes. I've been corresponding with Danton, oh, for quite a long time. Oh, I rather think it was from the time when his own father became unable to write to me. The letters that I had from Danton were always the same as those of his grandfather, Edgar Rice Burroughs, because they were so delightfully free and easy reading. There was nothing extra special that we communicated over our letters, but they were all . . . his . . . I looked forward to, because it would be a happy letter for me to read. And I only hope mine were just as good as that.
Jim: You received some family pictures from Danton.
Frank: Yes, I received a photograph, one day, of his elder daughter, Dejah; and some while later he wrote me, in a letter, that his wife was expecting a baby very shortly. He put in a sheet of paper and said will you do me the honor of taking six girl's names and writing them down and also six boy's names. Write them down and put them in the order of how you would like your baby girl named. So I did that after a little thinking, and I wrote six girl's names and six boy's names. Then I had another letter from him telling me that the baby had been born and the baby's name was Llana, which is the first of the girl's names that I listed. By a strange coincidence, it was also Danton's own choice for the girl's name.
Jim: You've now met Danton several times. Tell us when you actually met Danton. How did you feel about meeting Danton for the first time at Louisville?
Frank: Well, of course, I was expecting to meet him, having been told he would be there, but it happened quite casually because I turned round, for some unknown reason, and I saw Danton a few paces away from me. We looked at each other and he hurried over to me and got my hand and he was very, very pleased to meet me. No less more so than I him.
Jim: How did you enjoy the family films that Danton brought to the Louisville convention?
Frank: I thought them, well, from my past experience in having written with Burroughs so often, I felt almost likely to looking at an old home of mine because although I've never had a picture of their home, I've always heard about it and this made today's show, the film, much more vivid to me than otherwise.
Jim: Is there any particular moment in today's film that was a particular favorite of yours, when you saw it?
Frank: No, there wasn't.
Jim: Danton has sent you some gifts over the years. Didn't he send you volume two of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Library of Illustration?
Frank: Oh, yes, he did that. As a matter of fact, the book he sent me was his father's book, um, not so much because his father had owned it, but because it is the book which the publishers sent to John Coleman Burroughs for his opinion of the putting together of the book. It was up to John's expectations. The book was never returned because the publisher no longer required it and went off to carry on with the making, the printing of the books. But John kept his book even [though] the front and back cover were not fixed. Of course, one page before the writing of the book, in the book, was torn a bit. But, I suppose he looked upon it as his first attempt of this kind of thing. Some years later after he'd received it and after he'd died as well, Danton was searching out some of his effects and came across this book, which, with a very kind thought, he sent to me, with a little note saying that, uh, hoping that I'd not mind the condition of the book, but because it happened to be his father's own book, and I've still got that book at home now.
Jim: I know you've enjoyed meeting some of the Burroughs' grandchildren, but you never met Burroughs, himself, and yet, you almost did. Tell me that story.
Frank: Well, that goes back to the peaceful days before the war. I had a letter from Burroughs who said one time he would be in New York on such and such a day and if I could manage to get to New York, he'd be pleased to meet me, and if I could spare the time to go back to his ranch and stay for a few days, just to have a look around. Well, I doubt if anybody could have said "No" to such a request. So I made a few quick decisions and said that I would be at New York on such and such a day, although I'd never done such a [next four words unclear] live one had I? And that was that. But, unfortunately, about three days after writing that letter, England declared war on Germany, and there went my opportunity to meet with Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Jim: After Burroughs' death, you did enjoy the correspondence with the sons and even the grandchildren eventually, but for a long period of time you were still completely unaware of what we call Edgar Rice Burroughs fandom. However, eventually you became involved in it. Tell me what happened.
Frank: Actually the involvement with other collectors of Burroughs' books came around in 1979 [he was very unsure of this date--I think it must have been a few years earlier] when I had a phone call from Irwin Porges, in which he was a man I'd never heard of and with a quick explanation over the phone, he introduced himself and would like to come down someday very soon to meet me. Well, as the next day was Sunday and the most convenient day for me--I don't know about him--but I said would tomorrow be O.K? So he said yes. So he came down in the early afternoon and he told me how he'd been working for quite a number of months on the big Burroughs book, and having come across my name two or three times in the book, he thought that as he likes to visit England now and again, that he would try and connect with me and this he did. Worrying the postmaster general where I was living and how was it the same. . . after he had rung up my phone number and found I lived in the same [phone] number but not at the same address. Anyhow, he came over and he explained what he'd been doing, searching the archives at E.R.B., Inc., and I was really dumb struck, because I didn't think that things like this had come to such an increasing pace. Anyhow, before he left, he gave me, . . . he had also brought with him, apart from his big book, the two small books of the same big book [Porges' ERB biography] only in paperback. And that was that.
Jim: So he gave you that as your copy?
Frank: Yes. And, needless to say, after that, as I've done now, he and I have taken up a correspondence with each other, a very lively and interesting exchange of letters. But, getting back to getting involved in the Edgar Rice Burroughs fanfare, as I call it. A few days after Irwin had gone, I had another phone call from another stranger, who told me his name was Frank Westwood, and he very much [would] like to come down and meet me. So this was it and it was through him that I then learned that there was such a thing as an Edgar Rice Burroughs fan club and this I had no inkling of at all and that, I suppose, is how I became involved.
Jim: What did that lead to in terms of both your increase of items in your collection, and also in making acquaintances of other fans?
Frank: Of course, there were a lot more books laying around that I'd never seen or heard of before, but now, through Frank Westwood telling me this, I soon rectified that omission and went into now a hurried search for all these books. It was also through Frank Westwood, who introduced me to another friend of his, someone named Martin Smiddy in Cheshire, and he also identified me and some two or three weeks later, he came down to my home and met me; and then through him, I learned of a man in Canada, whose name is John Carson, and that really set things going because John is a really, really hard working man at writing letters. And through him, actually, he sent me a full list of the correspondents on his list, and I started writing to this person, and that person, and so on, and so on, until the list had grown quite a lot.
Jim: You've given that list a name, now, haven't you?
Frank: So many people remark upon the Edgar Rice Burroughs fan club, but one Christmas I decided to do something that had been on my mind for a few days. I approached my younger brother, who works as a printer, and got him to print me some small cards worded something like this: Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship, and underneath that I put the work "ECOF," which is the E for Edgar in the full name, and then the first letters of the following words and ECOF is now the usual expression for referring to the get-togethers. Anyhow, I and my brother numbered each card, and then I sat down and wrote the names of all my pen pals and much to my surprise, it turned out to be quite a success. It is still being used today, the numbered cards.
Jim: Hasn't your starting of the Chain of Friendship led to some visitors coming to see you?
Frank: Oh, yes, that has happened quite often just lately. It seems to run from the ECOF card, and membership seems to have been an attraction for quite a number of people from Canada and America. They come over to this country, England, to call on me, which is a very pleasant thing, and makes ECOF a lot more binding.
Jim: You've also traveled as a result of your ECOF friendships. Tell us about that.
Frank: Yes. I've not actually traveled to any of the homes of ECOF people, except those in England. But, last year, I finally made up my mind to go to Canada to meet John Carson and that was an ECOF meeting. There were certain members of the company there. We had a very good time and now, this year, I've come over to America and I'm having an extended holiday, and I don't think there can be many ECOF members left whom I've not yet met, and it's a pleasure to greet each one and have a chat with them.
Jim: Frank, you've done some investigation into the works of Burroughs and some of the aspects of his writings. Tell me a little more about that. For example, tell me the story of receiving and working with the Ape-English Dictionary.
Frank: On one occasion some years ago, Hully Burroughs sent me a copy he'd made from his father's own work references which included the names Edgar Rice Burroughs coined for convenience in the Tarzan books. For example of that . . . became quite a lengthy dictionary in alphabetical order, and the papers that Hully sent me consisted of two pages of Ape-English Dictionary and two pages of English-Ape Dictionary. Like in one of the books, but there's quite a number of words in the Ape Dictionary that are not in the English Dictionary, and some of those words are missing from the English Dictionary in the Ape Dictionary.
Jim: What else did you discover about some of the words in his reference dictionary?
Frank: I found out that quite a number of words in the Ape Dictionary are not mentioned at all in any of the books he wrote. So one assumes that he was that certain of making a formal dictionary, whether he used the words or not. There were words in that which you find are not used in the Ape Dictionary.
Jim: You've also made a study of the place names and person names which Burroughs created for his various works. Tell me about that.
Frank: Some long time ago I sat down and copied onto paper . . . I took the Tarzan books for a start . . . I copied onto paper every coined word that appeared in the Tarzan books and having completed it, I then examined it, aided by an encyclopedia and other books, to find out if any of the Ape words had a real origin. The findings, they were rather amazing, because there are quite a number of place names in English that are used in the Ape Dictionary. One of the peculiar things about the name, Kala, Tarzan's foster mother, I found out that Kala had about seven or eight different terms in English, and they were mainly either near water or near a forest. Whether these had a meaning in English, or its just a coincidence, I don't know. Then I carried on from there to the Mars books and eventually to all the books that Burroughs had written. So I took literally the made-up names and put along side them the modern or ordinary names given in the English dictionaries.
Jim: You've also been interested in some of the little minor plot threads that Burroughs added to his stories, but didn't follow-up on. Tell me, for example, about your interest in the story of Betty Caldwell and the Venus books.
Frank: Yes, as you probably already know, in the Venus stories, it mentions the name of Betty Caldwell, who actually is introduced to us in the book as a goddess, but some of her men around her were coming to get rid of her, and the outcome was that Carson Napier had been imprisoned in a cage, and one night, one evening, the high priests got hold of this princess, or goddess, I believe, and pushed her into the cage where Carson Napier was. Where they chatted away for quite some time, and night came, and they slept, and when he woke up, Carson Napier found that he was alone, and there was no damage to the wires of the cage, and it was a complete mystery, not only to him, but to the high priests, who came to take her as they were going to kill her. But a little further in the book, Burroughs mentions in a little footnote, that a girl, Betty Caldwell, was killed as she was walking up a lane at the side of a house. It was quite a mystery and strangely enough the body disappeared. It was at least imagined that when Betty Caldwell died her other person became the girl on Venus who became the goddess.
Jim: Haven't you written a follow-up story to go with it?
Frank: I was rather intrigued about this situation and I wrote a short story concerning Betty Caldwell, in which she is returned to the little lane where she was attacked and killed; and for the second time, after looking around her, for the second time, she disappears. Actually, I placed her in a balcony on another planet entirely. Then there followed a sequence of her meeting up with people, a young soldier, who falls in love with her, and that was it.
Jim: Let's go back for a minute to your first discovery of the works of Burroughs. What was actually the first Burroughs story you read and where did you discover it?
Frank: I'm afraid that the movies that were in front of me where Tarzan is concerned, because I had not seen a Tarzan film [I think he meant book] by the time Elmo Lincoln's film came through London, and that set me off hunting around the shops for this particular book and finally for the other books as well. Lincoln in the first book and on one occasion . . . I haven't said anything about The Son of Tarzan . . .
Jim: I believe you found a copy of THE RETURN OF TARZAN first?
Frank: Yes, that's right. And it took a long while before I found the first story.
Jim: And so you delayed reading until you could read them in the correct order?
Frank: Yes, I really was so interested in them that I wanted to, well, I always hoped for a Tarzan follow-up story, and so, that was what I started doing, hunting around for another Tarzan book.
Jim: How long was it before you discovered the Mars series and the Pellucidar series?
Frank: I don't know just when it was, but I read in its correct order THE PRINCESS OF MARS and the two following books, and from then on, the books being published in this country [England], until I caught them up a bit, so I was almost never without a Tarzan, or well, never without a Burroughs book.
Jim: Were you also able to locate the bulk of the unconnected stories?
Frank: Yes, in some cases, although they were a little more difficult. It was a long time before I found THE MUCKER, and such stories like that. But they were not as popular, really, as the Tarzan and Martian stories.
Jim: Do you have any favorites among the unconnected stories.
Frank: THE MUCKER is one . . . is not a favorite because of the story, because I refer to [A pause as Frank lost his train of thought. The tape was stopped as well.] . . . I like this a little bit proudly because Edgar Rice Burroughs actually wrote his name in it and a few short lines in it to me as well. So that was because of the closeness. [I believe Frank is referring to his signed copy of THE DEPUTY SHERIFF OF COMANCHE COUNTY, sent to him by Ralph Rothmund at ERB's request.]
Jim: Well, Frank, your whole life has had the influence of Edgar Rice Burroughs and his works in it. What do you see for your interest in Burroughs in the future? What are your plans?
Frank: Well, I don't know.
Jim: Might we hope that you'd give us some autobiographical study?
Frank: Oh yes, that's something that I've been thinking about, and it just may be my writing an autobiography of my . . . of me and Edgar Rice Burroughs and his books. Just let me put it in this way. Having only just recently met Danton Burroughs and he was very, very kind to me--this book is going to be [garbled tape here, then a pause on the tape].
Jim: Tell me the story about the letter from Edgar Rice Burroughs that arrived long after his death.
Frank: One rather surprizing letter arrived one morning for me and it was addressed to my old address, a previous address. It was a letter from Edgar Rice Burroughs and as I say, it was addressed to my old home. But that had been cancelled and sent back to the sender because of the wrong address. And one day, as I say now, when it got back to . . . [pause]. A few years ago I received a letter from America that had been forwarded to me by . . . the original writing on the envelope was my old address and in the hand of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and as it had been posted a long time ago. I'd had another move of home and the letter was returned "unknown" and whoever was at the bureaucracy [ERB, Inc.] in those days just put it into the file box and left it. It was there until about three years ago. Danton found it and sent it over to me, thinking that I'd like to have it. It was a very nice short letter that Burroughs wrote. It was rather a queer feeling knowing that he'd been dead for about fifteen years.
Jim: Let's go back for a minute to your first discovery of the works of Burroughs. What was actually the first Burroughs story you read and where did you discover it?
Frank: I'm afraid that the movies that were in front of me where Tarzan is concerned, because I had not seen a Tarzan film [I think he meant book] by the time Elmo Lincoln's film came through London, and that set me off hunting around the shops for this particular book and finally for the other books as well. Lincoln in the first book and on one occasion . . . I haven't said anything about The Son of Tarzan . . .
Jim: I believe you found a copy of The Return of Tarzan first?
Frank: Yes, that's right. And it took a long while before I found the first story.
Jim: And so you delayed reading until you could read them in the correct order?
Frank: Yes, I really was so interested in them that I wanted to, well, I always hoped for a Tarzan follow-up story, and so, that was what I started doing, hunting around for another Tarzan book.
Jim: How long was it before you discovered the Mars series and the Pellucidar series?
Frank: I don't know just when it was, but I read in its correct order The Princess of Mars and the two following books, and from then on, the books being published in this country [England], until I caught them up a bit, so I was almost never without a Tarzan, or well, never without a Burroughs book.
Jim: Were you also able to locate the bulk of the unconnected stories?
Frank: Yes, in some cases, although they were a little more difficult. It was a long time before I found The Mucker, and such stories like that. But they were not as popular, really, as the Tarzan and Martian stories.
Jim: Do you have any favorites among the unconnected stories.
Frank: The Mucker is one . . . is not a favorite because of the story, because I refer to [A pause as Frank lost his train of thought. The tape was stopped as well.] . . . I like this a little bit proudly because Edgar Rice Burroughs actually wrote his name in it and a few short lines in it to me as well. So that was because of the closeness. [I believe Frank is referring to his signed copy of The Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County, sent to him by Ralph Rothmund at ERB's request.]
Jim: Well, Frank, your whole life has had the influence of Edgar Rice Burroughs and his works in it. What do you see for your interest in Burroughs in the future? What are your plans?
Frank: Well, I don't know.
Jim: Might we hope that you'd give us some autobiographical study?
Frank: Oh yes, that's something that I've been thinking about, and it just may be my writing an autobiography of my . . . of me and Edgar Rice Burroughs and his books. Just let me put it in this way. Having only just recently met Danton Burroughs and he was very, very kind to me--this book is going to be [garbled tape here, then a pause on the tape].
Jim: Tell me the story about the letter from Edgar Rice Burroughs that arrived long after his death.
Frank: One rather surprising letter arrived one morning for me and it was addressed to my old address, a previous address. It was a letter from Edgar Rice Burroughs and as I say, it was addressed to my old home. But that had been cancelled and sent back to the sender because of the wrong address. And one day, as I say now, when it got back to . . . [pause]. A few years ago I received a letter from America that had been forwarded to me by . . . the original writing on the envelope was my old address and in the hand of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and as it had been posted a long time ago. I'd had another move of home and the letter was returned "unknown" and whoever was at the bureaucracy [ERB, Inc.] in those days just put it into the file box and left it. It was there until about three years ago. Danton found it and sent it over to me, thinking that I'd like to have it. It was a very nice short letter that Burroughs wrote. It was rather a queer feeling knowing that he'd been dead for about fifteen years.
The End of the Shonfeld Interview.
Obituary Notice by Jim Thompson, ECOF Member #28
"The Love Born in Friendship is Greater Than All Else." Frank
Paul Shonfeld August 14, 1981
Frank "Paul" Shonfeld (October 5, 1904 -- July 31, 1990). Born Frank Arthur Edward Shonfeld in West Croyden, Surrey, south of London, into a large working class family whose roots in West Croyden, Frank could trace back nearly a thousand years to the time of William the Conqueror. Received little formal education, trained as a tailor, the family's trade for generations. Joined the Army in the 1920's where comrades gave him the nickname "Paul," which he used as his adopted middle name for the rest of his life. Served as a sergeant in a searchlight unit in the suburbs of London through World War II. (Lost much of his ERB collection and letter file from ERB to a fire bomb in his mother's attic during the Blitz.) Worked as a minor government official monitoring records of the British coal industry from the war's end until his retirement. Recipient of the British Empire Medal for his 15 years work as secretary to the 4th Queen's Old Comrades Association on April 19, 1982 -- an honor he treasured second only to his relationship with ERB. Lived a quiet bachelor's life with his sister, Betty, in West Croyden in retirement, a book lover and letter writer. A scholar in the true sense of the word -- endlessly fascinated by the things of the world around him and ever curious about words and things, people and places. ("One of my favorite topics, that of digging into encyclopaedias," he once wrote to me -- someone who owned and read in eleven dictionaries.) A voracious reader, not just of adventure fiction, though he loved Conan Doyle, Rider Haggard, Edgar Wallace, among others, but also of history and of word derivations. He collected facts into his own "Did you know . . ." book and collected "Quotes from Great Men" into another. But his greatest literary love and closest literary friendship was with Edgar Rice Burroughs, with whom he shared a correspondence of over 30 years. Unpublished author of numerous articles and even a few short stories based upon ERB's characters and creations. Founder of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship pen pal association and faithful and frequent correspondent to one and all. Remained a correspondent with ERB's sons and grandsons after ERB's death -- even assisting Danton Burroughs in selecting the names for his two daughters, Dejah Ralston and LLana Jane. A man who endured, but never suffered, a series of debilitating illnesses and injuries in his last years, but who never lost his spirit or his good cheer. Died this summer after 4 long years of decline in physical and mental health -- a kindness to someone who had lost such keen faculties in such a tragic and protracted fashion.
We corresponded from 1980 through 1986 when poor health stilled his
pen. We met twice at ECOF's in Toronto and Louisville. I loved and revered
him. We've all lost a "Dear Friend" -- a phrase he often used to close his
letters to me. Gentle man, wise elder, warm friend, I can't express my sorrow
that you've gone. Rest in Peace.
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