Lamont Buchanan's Books

Lamont Buchanan (b. 1919) was the associate editor and art director of Weird Tales during its years in his hometown of New York City. Although I have not yet found when he started in that position, I have found a source announcing his resignation in the winter of 1949-1950. (My source is Science Fantasy Review, Vol. 4, No. 17. You can look at that source here, on the website Efanzines.com.) By the time of his resignation, Buchanan had already seen three or four of his books in print. His future as a writer, editor, and compiler of pictorial books must have seemed bright.

In a review of one of his books, the reviewer wrote: "The author is identified as 'one of the earliest contributors to the big pictorial magazines' and 'a pioneer in the text and picture method of telling a story.' " That would suggest that Buchanan's work appeared in Life, Look, or similar magazines. In any case, Lamont Buchanan specialized in pictorial books, a field that seems to have opened up after World War II. One review stated that he had authored thirteen books, but I could find the titles of just twelve, the first from 1947 and the last from 1956.

• The Story of Football in Text and Pictures (New York: Stephen-Paul, 1947)
• The Story of Basketball in Text and Pictures (New York: Stephen-Paul, 1948)
• People and Politics: The Pictorial History of the American Two-Party System (New York: Stephen-Paul, 1948)
• The Story of Tennis in Text and Pictures (New York: Vanguard Press, 1951)
• A Pictorial History of the Confederacy (New York: Crown Publishers, 1951)
• The World Series and Highlights of Baseball (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1951)
• The Kentucky Derby Story (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1953)
• The Flying Years: A Pictorial History of Man's Conquest of the Air (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1953)
• The Pictorial Baseball Instructor (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1954)
• Steel Trails and Iron Horses: A Pageant of American Railroading (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1955)
• Ballot for Americans: A Pictorial History of American Elections, 1789-1956 (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1956)
• Ships of Steam (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956)

And then, like Allison V. Harding, he seems to have vanished.

Copyright 2011, 2023 Terence E. Hanley