Economics and politics sounds more likely then, yes.

Volume eight contains

• J.R.R. Tolkien: Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale
  
• J.R.R. Tolkien: The Reeve's Tale
  

• John Garth: Robert Quilter Gilson, T.C.B.S.: A Brief Life in Letters
  

Volume eleven doesn't have primary material in it.

FWIW, I don't think I'm giving much away when I say that The Nature of Middle-earth will contain Tolkien's "Fate and Free Will", in a (slightly) differently edited form.

Aelfwine wrote:

FWIW, I don't think I'm giving much away when I say that The Nature of Middle-earth will contain Tolkien's "Fate and Free Will", in a (slightly) differently edited form.

Loose lips sink ships !

Aelfwine wrote:

FWIW, I don't think I'm giving much away when I say that The Nature of Middle-earth will contain Tolkien's "Fate and Free Will", in a (slightly) differently edited form.

?

That's vol. 5 that contains Chaucer as a Philologist and The Reeve's Tale.

And I had a hunch/hope that "Fate and Free Will" would be in there – great news!

Now if we can just reprint his lecture notes for The Wanderer...

Philomythos wrote:

That's vol. 5 that contains Chaucer as a Philologist and The Reeve's Tale.

My fault completely - I used the website table of contents from WVU instead of pulling the book, and I just clicked on the wrong volume (their grid puts the title at the bottom of the book, so I clicked the book just under that title, which was volume 5).

Volume eight does contain John Garth: Robert Quilter Gilson, T.C.B.S.: A Brief Life in Letters, which has a lot of previously unpublished material.

No worries; thanks for the info. But as far as I can see, the Garth article only contains letters written by Robert Gilson (which are interesting in themselves, of course).

Khamûl wrote:

Urulókë wrote:

Khamûl wrote:

Urulókë wrote:

I assume (just guessing) because these "hard to find" issues are all the ones with primary Tolkien material being printed for the first time, that the Estate permission did not include reprinting ad infinitum.

Is it not available at all i.e. digitally/eBook?

Digital ebooks are available from Volume 2 onward. https://wvupressonline.com/tolkien_digital_edition

It's still being published and "reprinted" then. The lack of physical copies is down to something else, I'd suggest basic economics. Doug left for a reason too.

Douglas Anderson laid down his reasons to cease involvement with Tolkien Studies in a blog post back in the day.

https://tolkienandfantasy.blogspot.com/2012/04/publishing-mordor-style.html

Regarding volume 6 he there also stated that "for some reason the Press didn't do as many copies as with the other volumes." So WVUP obviously also reduced the number of print copies per issue before going to the paperback format.

I'm surprised in the modern world of POD, that the traditional university presses and academic distribution vehicle as a whole can't simply be eliminated.

Change the title and move on without the academic publishing parasites.

Yes, Tolkien Studies is shamefully expensive and learning that they ceased hardcover bindings because they were too expensive is a kind of joke.