Well I received the Pocket Roverandom yesterday, and I'm happy enough with it. Nice cover and the paper is reasonably non toilet-paperish.

I have to say, though, I think the "novelty" pocket format is basically too small. I would have MUCH preferred an edition that matched the recent "Mr Bliss" and "Letters from Father Christmas". Those books are far easier to hold and read.

The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings

Delve into Tolkien’s Middle-earth with this special collector’s hardback boxed set. Presented in sumptuous new cover designs discover the complete story of Bilbo Baggins and the Hobbits’ epic encounters with Gandalf, Gollum, dragons and monsters, in the quest to destroy the One Ring.

Pub Date: 24 October 2013

Format: Hardback Collector’s edition (not a film tie-in )

ISBN: 978-0-00-752293-4

Price: £59.99

http://www.tolkien.co.uk/titles/83585 ... r-r-tolkien-9780007522934

You can see the covers in what should be final colour's on my previous post, but I have re-posted them as well.

https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/n ... t_id=12263#forumpost12263













Thanks HarperCollins for this set

Very nice set. I have directly cancelled my pre-order at amazon for the separate books, and ordered the box.
Perhaps bookpeople will have the separate books also with dj.

I must say that is one of the nicest boxed sets (incoporating the book spines as well) that I have ever seen for Tolkien's major works. Many kudos to the design team that put this together!

Looking forward to this one!

A bit of a shame that HC first releases The Hobbit separately, and then includes it in this set! I will end up with three very similar editions of the same book -- don't they take pity on us collectors?

Looking at Trotter's picture of the set: it does look like this edition will be a bit different, though (or is it just the image?) -- more ... square?

Morgan wrote:
A bit of a shame that HC first releases The Hobbit separately, and then includes it in this set! I will end up with three very similar editions of the same book -- don't they take pity on us collectors?

Looking at Trotter's picture of the set: it does look like this edition will be a bit different, though (or is it just the image?) -- more ... square?

HC pretty much always does this, I expect that they will also do a Silmarillion in the same style and issue another box-set with that as well, if they do then they should call it The Tolkien Library (I might suggest this to them) Edit: I have suggested it, lets see if anything happens

This is the last published copy of The Tolkien Library (1978)

http://www.tolkienbooks.net/php/details.php?reference=87160

The pictures are computer generated, I don't think they actually have any copies of the LOTR hardback's yet or a real box-set.

They will be more like the Hobbit when issued, curved spines, not square.

A bit of shameless self-promotion:

The Deutsche Tolkien Gesellschaft recently published the bilingual (German/English) journal Hither Shore 9. In addition to a number of papers from the Tolkien Seminar 2012 and reviews, the journal includes the article "Two Swedish Interviews with J.R.R. Tolkien", edited with an introduction and footnotes by Shaun Gunner and me. The interviews were conducted in 1961 by Lars Gustafsson and the late Jan Broberg, and John-Henri Holmberg has kindly contributed with a translation into English. Can't wait to receive my contributor's copy!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tolkiens-Infl ... collsguid-21&linkCode=osi

Hi Morgan, thanks for the news! Can you tell me/us a little more of the history of the interviews? Is this the first appearance of them translated into English? Where else (if anywhere) have they been published?

1) "Can you tell me/us a little more of the history of the interviews?"

For a full answer I'd recommend to consult the introduction to the interviews in Hither Shore 9. But to make a long story short: both interviews were conducted in 1961 (independently of each other), in-person with J.R.R. Tolkien.

2) "Is this the first appearance of them translated into English?"

The Broberg interview has never appeared in English before.* The Gustafsson interview "leaked", so to speak, since Gustafsson (without me knowing) posted an early draft of the English translation (without the editors' footnotes) on his blog -- I had sent the draft to him for evaluation. At this stage, the interviews were planned for publication in Tolkien Studies, and Flieger, Anderson and Drout had accepted the submission. Unfortunately, the "publication" at Gustafsson's blog made a publication in Tolkien Studies impossible: it's their policy not to publish material that has been published elsewhere, electronically or in print. Fortunately, the editor of Hither Shore was instead willing to publish the material.

3) "Where else (if anywhere) have they been published?"

Broberg's interview has appeared in two versions: in a Swedish newspaper in 1961 and as a chapter in his 1985 book I fantasins världar. In the footnotes in Hither Shore, we present the differences between the two versions. Gustafsson's interview has only been published in a Swedish newspaper in 1961.

If anyone has further questions, I'd be happy to provide more answers.


*A snippet from the Broberg interview has appeared in Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond's Addenda and Corrigenda to The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide (2006) Vol. 2: Reader’s Guide (search for "Broberg", or cf. pp. 973–6, entry for Spiders).