For Sale - early reviews of Tolkien
3 October
(edited)
2024-10-3 12:54:24 PM UTC
2024-10-3 12:54:24 PM UTC
I'm selling the lion's share of my collection of early reviews. I'm packaging these up according to the different works:
• The Lord of the Rings (1 mainstream batch, 1 with sci-fi pulps)
• The Silmarillion
• Tree and Leaf
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (yep, the 1925 edition!)
In lieu of detailed itemised descriptions, please see the photos below - if you zoom in you'll be able to see specific issue dates, for example. However, I have accompanied the photos with some comments, to highlight items that might be of particular interest.
I can provide additional photos of any of these on request, and am happy to answer any questions in terms of content or condition (a couple of items have detached covers and these are called out specifically).
UPDATE: SOLD -The Lord of the Rings (1) - 10 items - $400
There are some real highlights here (priced accordingly, also in view of age and scarcity):
• All three of W.H. Auden's reviews (FOTR in Encounter and The NYT Book Review, ROTK in The NYT Book Review)
• Naomi Mitchison in The New Statesman and Nation
• Howard Spring in Country Life (mentioned by Tolkien in Letter #149)
• Both reviews by Louis J. Halle in Saturday Review
Covers detached - The New York Times Book Review, 31 October 1954 (front), Saturday Review, 15 January 1955 (front and back).
UPDATE: SOLD -The Lord of the Rings (2) - 10 items - $150
These are sci-fi pulps and are somewhat less scarce than other items.
UPDATE: SOLD -The Silmarillion - 8 items - $225
The New Republic has a lengthy review as well as a rather fetching cover! The New York Review of Books also has a lengthy review which includes one of those Tolkien caricatures which became quite the vogue in review articles.
The review in the Isaac Asimov magazine is really short, the one in The Horn Book is quite short. The covers are detached on Christianity Today.
UPDATE: SOLD -Tree and Leaf - 8 items - $225
The reviews in Saturday Review and Poetry are very short.
UPDATE: SOLD -Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - 3 items - $80
It's worth noting that these are in particularly good condition for being almost 100 years old!
• The Lord of the Rings (1 mainstream batch, 1 with sci-fi pulps)
• The Silmarillion
• Tree and Leaf
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (yep, the 1925 edition!)
In lieu of detailed itemised descriptions, please see the photos below - if you zoom in you'll be able to see specific issue dates, for example. However, I have accompanied the photos with some comments, to highlight items that might be of particular interest.
I can provide additional photos of any of these on request, and am happy to answer any questions in terms of content or condition (a couple of items have detached covers and these are called out specifically).
UPDATE: SOLD -
There are some real highlights here (priced accordingly, also in view of age and scarcity):
• All three of W.H. Auden's reviews (FOTR in Encounter and The NYT Book Review, ROTK in The NYT Book Review)
• Naomi Mitchison in The New Statesman and Nation
• Howard Spring in Country Life (mentioned by Tolkien in Letter #149)
• Both reviews by Louis J. Halle in Saturday Review
Covers detached - The New York Times Book Review, 31 October 1954 (front), Saturday Review, 15 January 1955 (front and back).
UPDATE: SOLD -
These are sci-fi pulps and are somewhat less scarce than other items.
UPDATE: SOLD -
The New Republic has a lengthy review as well as a rather fetching cover! The New York Review of Books also has a lengthy review which includes one of those Tolkien caricatures which became quite the vogue in review articles.
The review in the Isaac Asimov magazine is really short, the one in The Horn Book is quite short. The covers are detached on Christianity Today.
UPDATE: SOLD -
The reviews in Saturday Review and Poetry are very short.
UPDATE: SOLD -
It's worth noting that these are in particularly good condition for being almost 100 years old!
Mr. Underhill wrote:
Quite a handsome lot Predictable Matt!
Thank you! And note how (sci-fi pulps aside) the items get more and more colourful as the years go by
80
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