To begin with -- NO, NO, NO, despite the misleading title, this is not one of the famous lottery dream books by the incomparable Rajah Rabo (Carl Z. Talbot), author of Rajah Rabo's Pick'Em Dream Book and Rajah Rabo 5-Star Mutuel Dream Book. Nope, what we have here is a complete and total rip-off of the title and concept (but not the contents) of the fabulous Rajah Rabo series, written by someone called -- i kid you not! -- Rajah Stanley. That's right, Rajah Stanley.
Okay, so with that out of the way, let's find out what Rajah Stanley was up to:
This book consists of 96 pages of keywords, of which 70 are
keywords describing dreams. There are no interpretations for
the dreams, just sets of 3-digit number picks in the following format:
RABBI 249
RABBIT 694
RACCOON 435
Finally, and most noteworthily, there are 5 pages in this book
in which Stanley
basically introduced to the world singlehandedly the most successful
post-modern form of
dream number picking -- printing a few 3-digit gigs, boxes,
and bugs in VERY LARGE NUMERALS with a cryptic phrase
accompanying each set and assuming that the reader would somehow be spirit led to
get the right message and thus pick the right numbers. In this
early example of the technique, the phrases are: "Don't
Do It," "Selections," "Special Alert," "New Experiences,"
and "Warning" -- and with these strangely compelling but
essentially meaningless big-type word-and-numeral layouts, Rajah
Stanley ushered in the late 20th century
era of "catch-phrase" numbers picks. This catch-phrase system
(if you can call it a "system" -- it hardly seems to merit that
appellation) has not supplanted the older, tried and true dream pick,
runs down, and workout systems that characterize 19th and 20th century
lottery books, but as the 21st century rolls on, we see more and
more of these big-type layouts being offered for sale, and to date there
has been little backlash against them, perhaps because despite their limitations
(you get so few numbers per page!), they strike a certain powerful chord
in the mind. Surely even i, a dream book enthusiast with my heart
fully committed to the most classic of the dream books, cannot gainsay
the charm of Rajah Stanley's page 89:
Thank you,
STANLEY
The book is undated but contains entries for TELEVISION, TELEVISION TECHNICIAN, CHARGE ACCOUNT, CREDIT MANAGERS, PHYSICAL THERAPIST, COMPUTER OPERATOR, COMPUTER PROGRAMMER, COMPUTER ANALYST, ONE-NIGHT-STAND, and WELFARE CHECK that would seem to date it to the late 1970s or early 1980s. Since this is the "26th Successful Updated Edition," i have given it the tentative original publication date of 1978. I have not been able to turn up any information about the author of this book, except that he signed his work "Stanley" and that this book was originally published in Mahopac, New York. I do not know whether Stanley was the author's first name, last name, or a completely fabricated name like the "Rajah" attribution on the cover. Whoever the author was -- Ralph Anderson, perhaps, or Theodore Becker -- he was obviously familiar with the work of Carl. Z talbot (Rajah Rabo) and Talbot's long-popular Rajah Rabo 5-Star Mutuel Dream Book and the Pick'Em Dream Book by Rajah Rabo, and it is painfully obvious that he sought to sneak his book into the hands of those who thought they were buying a new copy of the Rajah Rabo classics.
In a way it is too bad that Rajah Stanley thought so little of himself and his own work that he tried to piggyback on the fame of Rajah Rabo, because although he certainly had a few original ideas of his own, his choice of pseudonym and subtitle for this book will eternally consign him to the ranks of poseurs and wannabes, and keep from him the recognition he actually deserves.
So, if you do buy this book, just remember, it is not quite what it pretends to be, but it has merit in its own right.
More general information about dream books, policy wheels, and lottery betting will be found in the page about "Aunt Sally's Policy Players Dream Book"
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