The text in the 1913 edition of Turquoise Skies is attributed to, or at least copyrighted by, L.M. Allen, who was Rock Island’s passenger traffic manager, even though John Sebastian was still Rock Island’s third vice-president in charge of passenger services. Much of the verbiage is similar to the text that was attributed to Sebastian in the 1907 edition. While Sebastian and Allen may have had final approval for the text, they probably didn’t write most of it.
Click image to download a 23.8-MB PDF of this 76-page booklet.
The front cover painting is signed F.R. Harper, which stands for Frank Robert Harper (1876-1948). Harper lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he did illustrations for books, newspapers, and various advertising. He seemed to be fond of overly colorful naturalistic scenes, often with an Indian maiden or another pretty girl in the foreground.
The oldest edition of Under the Turquoise Sky in my collection is 1902 and the newest is 1930, and I can’t find older or newer ones elsewhere on the internet. During most if not all of this time, L.M. Allen was listed as Rock Island’s general passenger agent or a similar title (no one is listed on the 1902 edition but his name is on the 1905 through 1930 editions). Rock Island may have stopped issuing booklets under this name because of the Depression, because Allen retired, or simply because the company decided to alter its marketing strategy.