@Eorl wrote:
I will be trying to get an edition with a larger print of all the letters and envelopes so I can read and see the details. Many of the pictures are rather small and their accompanying text even tinier. That is my only gripe about this edition (though I don’t see how they could have got around it).

Hmm, they could have just made it a much larger format edition like they used to publish it in, rather than making it in a format that isn't especially suitable (albeit one normalised by the previous standard release)......

The good thing is the last sensible sized HC hardback edition (with the blue cover) is regularly available on ebay for next to nothing.

A neat method to do it, could have been to use the same dimensions as The Maps of Middle-earth set by Howe + Sibley; yet make it clothbound and, well, deluxe. There could be a book, and the letters that already existed in the pull-out format.

My copy has arrived: 1st thus by an unidentified printer . I wonder who decided to exclude the printing house name. What kind of manufacturer has such low pride in what they do that they'd rather omit their name from their products? And if it's up to HC, then their decision to omit the manufacturer name tells me as much as their inclusion. Isn't there some kind of law requiring products to state where they were made? There's some ethical issues with this.

In terms of design, I really like the unique style of this book. However, the production quality is regrettable. The issue with the unaligned stamp (at least mine it's within "the box"), the small but noticeable manufacturing defects in the cloth, the chemical smell. It's a repeat of Kullervo.

I just hope we get no more books made by this mediocre unidentified printing company.

Morinehtar wrote:

My copy has arrived: 1st thus by an unidentified printer . I wonder who decided to exclude the printing house name. What kind of manufacturer has such low pride in what they do that they'd rather omit their name from their products? And if it's up to HC, then their decision to omit the manufacturer name tells me as much as their inclusion. Isn't there some kind of law requiring products to state where they were made? There's some ethical issues with this.

In terms of design, I really like the unique style of this book. However, the production quality is regrettable. The issue with the unaligned stamp (at least mine it's within "the box"), the small but noticeable manufacturing defects in the cloth, the chemical smell. It's a repeat of Kullervo.

I just hope we get no more books made by this mediocre unidentified printing company.

Other than the stamp being slightly off (albeit within the correct area), my copy wasn't too bad. On re-sniffing, it does seem to have a little of that Kullervo smell, though not the same level of toxic cloud of VOCs that Kullervo exhibited (which have fully off-gassed now as far as I can tell from a re-sniff). I suspect the printer was RR Donnelly, based on the similarity of the odours.

I agree with you about the ethics of leaving the printer information off. I don't think there is any legal requirement to state the country of origin on books -- it is more of an accepted convention.

And there's a yet another new edition coming next month....

But that's the US edition, not another UK one, right ?

HarperCollins is also doing a Centenary edition, to be released at the end of October. It will have some small corrections/updates from the 2019 edition ?. I have only seen a trade version publicized, no deluxe edition that I have run across yet.


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Letters from Father Christmas

J. R. R. Tolkien

9780008406844

(hardback)

$34.14

Availability: Unknown

Check at Blackwell's

See https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/n ... t_id=24475#forumpost24475 for a bit more detail from earlier this year when we discussed.

Trade? It'll be an over-sized hardback, not a paperback.

insurrbution wrote:

Trade? It'll be an over-sized hardback, not a paperback.

Not sure what you mean, but the UK release will be a Trade edition hardback.

Never heard of a trade edition hardback before. When I hear trade, it's most often associated with comic arcs collected into a book, or a paperback that's not pocket-sized, both of which are often called trade paperbacks.