Lucius Beebe

After hearing so much praise about his work, I have taken a few books out of the library by Lucius Beebe. Maybe it's just me, but I have found him to be somewhat overrated as an author and photographer. To me, his writing seemed a little too showy, and he was too obsessed with the high class side of railroading. Also, the 3/4 shots that I saw in books like "Trains in Transition" got a little old after awhile. I understand that when he was in his prime, there was really no one else writing, but I was somewhat disappointed in his work.

Am I the only one who feels this way?

The writing was showy. I doubt that there is a high class side of railroading however. You must remember that there weren't too many fellows who could go out during the years of the Great Depression and afford to take train pictures and have them published. He certainly photo'd and wrote about a very blue collar business.
He was a columnist for one of the New York papers. I think he wrote about the social scene. A native of Wakefield, Mass., his family donated the Beebe Library in that town and I suspect that the Beebe Building on South Street in Boston, near South Station, was a headquarters for a Beebe business. He did not have a poor upbringing and it was probably inherited wealth that enabled him to buy a private car and a Nevada newspaper, the Territorial Enterprise.
Check out some of his other books. HIGHBALL, HIGHLINERS and MIXED TRAIN DAILY. The last one was quite an account of traveling about the USA during WWII years on many shortline roads that still carried ticketed passengers in scheduled service. The books are not fact heavy but they are entertaining. ( You must check out the George Hilton book MA & PA for the celebration that he threw to introduce MIXED TRAIN DAILY to the world.) Overall he probably has 15 or so books to his credit and not all are about railroad subjects.
He could drink with the best too.
His later years were spent in San Francisco and Virginia City.
I never met him, but I suspect he'd come across like an enthusiast who spoke like William F. Buckley, Jr.!

If you think Mr. Beebe's writing was "showy", read anything written in the 19th Century!

It's indeed true that Beebe was a flowery writer -- he loved the style and flaunted it. But as a blossoming railfan in the early 1940s, I found that his captions -- often with stirring quotations from other writers and poets -- entraced me and intensified my interest. True, both his writing (which was also proudly inaccurate) is out of fashion, and his photography trite by present standards. But it was all revoltionary at the time, and sucked in a lot of fans. He also helped popularize action photography at a time when most railfan photographer just trooped down to the roundhouse to take static roster shots.

In my opinion, Beebe's "partner," Charles Clegg was a much more imaginative photographer, as shown by his work in some of the later Beebe books.

He did was was called at the time a "cafe society" column for the old N. Y. Herald Tribune. One of his ex-co-workers at the Tribune, who later became head of C&O's public relations, once said, "If Lucius Beebe loves trains, there must be something wrong with trains."

The above comment about "See anything written in the 19th century" reasonably well describes Lucius' style. Another good railroad writer, Dr. George Hilton, described it as "ponderous and Victorian," which is right on. However, it's kind of fun to read stuff like that today, especially since most of our kids aren't being taught English in school "worth a peddler's damn."

Bon Vivant (sic?) and Gourmand is how he presented himself, like a Victorian Gentleman of rich tastes and big bankroll rubbing elbows with and sharing tables with the creme de le creme of society. He, I guess, was from a fairly wealthy family, if I remember correctly. Though he never dated women I am sure Emily Post was pin up girl and any and every bartender who served the proper wine and made a drink the way he liked it was his kind of man. He wrote a lot for SF and NY newspapers and you could catch his byline in many magazines the likes of Esquire, Playboy, and The New Yorker. But, as said above, his flowery style was a thow back to the Romantic and Victorian eras far removed from today's "quick bite" and often "tech sterile" writing of today.

SEE the most recent issue of R&LHS' RAILROAD HISTORY for a bio.!

I think Beebe also poularized railfanning. He journeyed to places others didn't, chronicled what others didnt see, and bankrolled books to distribute to the masses. I think Beebe knew he was being quaint when he wrote the stuff, as many people viewed trains as an outmoded form of transportation from another era... certainly it was Clegg who was able to experiement a little more with the camera, but we shouldnt be so quick to cast Beebe aside either.