Tales of the Nations was not an ordinary book that you could buy in a book store: it was a series of four-colour prints, somewhat larger than playing cards, which you received from the Hamburg publisher if you sent them vouchers. The vouchers were sold with Reemtsma cigarette packets. If you wanted the story which the pictures illustrated, you had to buy the collector's album at the tobacconist's: that contained the text of the stories and many additional black and white illustrations. The pictures and the albums are today collectors' items, though not rarities, as hundreds of thousands were printed and distributed all over Germany. Many of the older generation remember the storybook: the pictures have left a deep impression on them. "Ah yes!" white-haired ladies or gentlemen will often exclaim if you show it to them: "Indeed I know it - it's Sindbad the Sailor! But what was the name of that book?"
