Thanks a lot for this, very impressed as always.

You have mentioned that you don't have some editions, what is the best way for people who do have those editions to help?

Trotter wrote:
You have mentioned that you don't have some editions, what is the best way for people who do have those editions to help?

There are question marks in the table for entries I am unsure of (mostly the transcriptions of letters, except for the 2012 edition which I have almost no information on and thus have a copy incoming). If you have that edition and want to look up some of the page references, you can either email them to me or just edit the table in the guide yourself.

Thanks!

Trotter wrote:
Reply from HC

To reassure Khamûl and others, though this is still a work in progress as regards presentation, in essence it should feature all of the content that appeared in the deluxe slipcased edition, which I believe includes all available material, excluding the un-decorated backs of three envelopes (the 1921/1922 letters are, of course, not part of the extant archive). As the product description suggests, the Centenary edition will be at a larger size, of approximately 286 x 225mm, matching that of the 1999 edition but obviously including a great deal more content.

My emphasis added to HC response in order to note - my tabulation of the published Christmas Letters editions shows he is essentially correct. There are three envelope versos not reproduced in the 2019 edition at all that have been previously. There are two envelope versos that are partially obscured in 2019 by other material, but they are essentially viewable (these are marked with yellow in the table).

Interestingly, there is an undated envelope marked CHIM / NEY / POST that seems to float around from edition to edition. In 2019 they have it in 1932 which makes sense to me, but they also have it in 1936 (it is reproduced twice!). In previous editions it was placed in 1937.

I should also note that I have not added Artist & Illustrator and Maker of Middle-earth to the table of published FC material yet as well, but I think the 2019 edition contains all of those pieces.

Thanks for the effort compiling this!

Urulókë wrote:
I have been working on a table of the various editions of FCL - I have one obvious gap in my collection (the 2012 edition, on the way) and need to pretty the page up with cover images, mobile layout etc., but it seems like everyone is interested now so please have a look and give me feedback.

https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/w ... ers+From+Father+Christmas

For what I know, the 2012 and 2015 are the same. At the publication of the deluxe version, I made a comparative table of the pieces between the 1999 large hardback in blue), the 2015 pocket hardback (in grey) and the 2019 deluxe (in red). Maybe you can compare with your own list ?
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d ... hH7Pin1g/edit?usp=sharing

Urulókë wrote:
Interestingly, there is an undated envelope marked CHIM / NEY / POST that seems to float around from edition to edition. In 2019 they have it in 1932 which makes sense to me, but they also have it in 1936 (it is reproduced twice!). In previous editions it was placed in 1937.

This should be fixed in the next version of the book, HC said thanks for being advised

Druss wrote:
For what I know, the 2012 and 2015 are the same. At the publication of the deluxe version, I made a comparative table of the pieces between the 1999 large hardback in blue), the 2015 pocket hardback (in grey) and the 2019 deluxe (in red). Maybe you can compare with your own list ?

Thanks Druss! I will look at this over the weekend in detail. Can you tell me what the number "2" means on its own? I see sometimes "2 lettres" and "x2" which make sense, but not sure what the standalone digit is meant to convey.

If this helps any, mine is the most recent paperback, with a date of 2015, and it's the 9th printing.

Can you tell me what the number "2" means on its own? I see sometimes "2 lettres" and "x2" which make sense, but not sure what the standalone digit is meant to convey.

Its all the same, yes. I was just annoyed to write each time "2 letters/envelopes/seals"

Are the references here to a 2015 copy simply to a later printing of the 2012 edition?

We have details of all editions and their reproductions through 2012 in the Reader's Guide of our J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide (2017), vol. 2, pp. 1485-88. Christina earlier analyzed the contents of editions through 2009 in The Tolkien Collector nos. 31 and 33, and we had a post about the 2012 edition on our blog.

Wayne & Christina