Kaplan, Stuart
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[edit] Tarot contribution
Publisher, collector, and author Stuart Kaplan is a pivotal figure in the Tarot community for popularizing, researching amd distributing Tarot through the company he founded and still heads: U.S. Games.
[edit] Biography
A graduate of the Sorbonne and the Wharton Business School, Stuart and Kaplan began importing the Waite-Smith Tarot into the United States in 1968 and changed the face of Tarot forever. In his words:
"Back in 1968 I was working on Wall Street for a multi-millionaire. In February of 1968, on vacation, I decided to go to the Nuremberg Toy Fair in Germany to look for gifts for our five children. I was just looking around for what was interesting in the game and toy field and I found a Tarot deck -- that was a Swiss 1JJ Tarot deck from A.G. Moore and Sons, and I brought it back -- and in the first year I sold 200,000 of those decks. Brentano's [a national chain of bookstore boutiques] in New York wanted to have a book that would go with the cards, so I wrote Tarot Cards for Fun and Fortune Telling. I knew nothing about it but I started researching. That book, Tarot Classic and the three-volumes of The Encyclopedia of Tarot have sold over one-point-one million copies and are translated into nine different languages. It was a hobby, mainly a historical research project, that turned out to be a business. I left Wall Street and started doing this full time as a publisher."
As head of U.S. Games, Kaplan became the first major U.S. Tarot publisher which allowed him to capitalize on the occult revival of the late 1960s. In 1971, he acquired rights to publish the Waite-Smith Tarot in the United States, although the subject of copyright on the deck is still very much a matter of debate. Still, U.S. Games remains the de facto Waite-Smith Tarot publisher. U.S. Games maintains a vast research library, some of which can be seen on their website. In addition, Kaplan's personal collection contains over 800 decks, including the famous rose-and-lilies Pamela A, acquired in an eBay auction in 2002, besting competitor Lo Scarabeo with a final bid of $8200.
As you read this, Mr.Kaplan has sold over $100 million worth of Tarot cards.
[edit] Publications
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[edit] decks
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[edit] books
- Encyclopedia of Tarot (four volumes)
- Tarot Classic
[edit] papers
To be added
