I will say this... For all the grumbling HarperCollins seems to receive, their customer service is night and day vs. Easton Press. I'm talking weeks between emails with EP, only to receive single-sentence answers. They didn't seem to care whether I made a purchase or not, nor did they demonstrate much knowledge about Tolkien publications. HC went out of their way to ensure my questions arrived at the proper channels, where I was given attention beyond what I deserve.

Probably unfair to compare any company's Tolkien knowledge to HarperCollins, of course. A better comparison is to Folio Society, who still absolutely blow EP out of the water in terms of service.

The majority of my interest in the EP Atlas is that it is probably the best way to get maps that lay flat(ish). I can live without the aesthetics.

eorl wrote:

I’ll be brutally honest.., I’ve always found the EP editions to be terribly ugly, (personal aesthetic opinion here), so I’ve never bothered much about them.

I started off thinking they were ugly, was slightly swayed, and have returned to the view that EP has absolutely no design skills whatsoever. For me they are gaudy baubles of books. Some of them are not too badly made, it has to be said, but the lack of design effort is pretty unforgivable. I'll divest myself of my EPs at some point.

Agree 100%. To me, the perfect edition would be a mix of Easton Press and Folio Society. What I mean, is the binding, leather, gilding etc that Easton has for all/most of their books (Tolkien or otherwise) but with the nice design style that Folio Society has.

If elements from both publishers were combined (a + b = c) I believe it'd be very lovely.

I've never found Easton Press editions particularly enticing, except for books signed by authors I like and that I was unlikely or no longer ever able to meet (e.g., "The Foundation Trilogy" signed by Isaac Asimov, Shelby Foote's "Civil War" series, Margaret Thatcher's memoirs, etc.). Otherwise, they're just gilt-edged trade editions with a fancy leather cover and a ribbon. Meh.

Completely agree. Easton Press has always felt lazy and boring.. Folio Society on the other hand has some pretty equisite Limited Edition books...