Tolkien 📔Book Covers

[Halasían]

I take it this is a UK edition?

Looks like a blob.

Here are my beloved paperbacks that I aquired from my 1st wife...

 

[Starbrow]

Halasian, those are the same as my original copy of the books that I fell in love with.

 

[Halasían]

Halasian, those are the same as my original copy of the books that I fell in love with.

These are special to me as I managed to swap my raggety one-offs I collected for this once-read set. Don't think my ex ever noticed and likely lost the ones she had in one of her many moves. I knew in 1983 she would never ever read them again and I was right.

 

[Olorgando]

Here are the covers of three of my recent purchases (the cover of John Rateliff's "The History of The Hobbit" is very muted).

First, John Garth's "Tolkien and the Great War", with a ©2019 cover picture perhaps for this paperback reissue edition:

 

[Olorgando]

Then, the Index to HoMe, with a picture by John Howe entitled "The Grey Havens":

 

[Olorgando]

And last a study of (possible) JRRT sources, a collection of essays edited by Jason Fisher, cover picture by Ted Nasmith:

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

How is that last one? I haven't seen it.

 

[Olorgando]

How is that last one? I haven't seen it.

Definitely interesting.
It has a total of eleven essays by twelve authors (one is a collaboration by two authors), including one by Fisher himself (besides his preface). Besides Tom Shippey and John D. Rateliff, I had not read anything by any of the other authors, and had only heard respectively read about Thomas Honegger, one of Germany's JRRT experts and a professor of medieval studies at the university in the city of Jena in Thuringia.
Fisher's preface and the first three essays take up the point about JRRT's stated disapproval of exactly what the book covers and defends source criticism (Shippey taking a philological tack, as might be expected). It kind of boils down to JRRT's also well-known "cordial dislike" of allegory - if done improperly. Both allegory and source criticism can be done properly, and Fisher's own essay shows how, but also warns against pitfalls that all too many take.
Then there are four essays about historical sources: Mesopotamia and the Bible, astronomy in classical legends, Goths and Langobards and Byzantium, Rohirrim as Anglo-Saxons (yes, if you add Goths to the mixture).
Then three writers, William Caxton (a 15th-cetury author / compiler), H. Rider Haggard, and John Buchan, the latter two acknowledged by JRRT himself as excellent modern writers.
The last essay studies what biographical matters may have found their way into JRRT's writing.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Thanks. I'll be on the lookout for it.

 

[Akhôrahil]

Here's Howe!

I have an English one volume paperback with this Gandalf illustration.
It has added value in my head -- read bits of it at "The Bird and Baby"
and more bits at the Lamb & Flag.

I used to work in Turkey for a couple of weeks and to spend some vacations there, but I only know a few words in turkish. As far as I recall people answered the phone bay saying something like "Efendim". I guess Efendi means lord or sir.

 

[Licky Linguist]

My old, battered version of LotR, three volumes in one
The outer cover was cellotaped about twenty times, but it's perfectly clear and unfaded inside, no pages missing.
1178 pages in total 🤭
The pages are a bit yellowish, and fragile, but that gives the perfect old-book feel when you're reading it.
Along with the lingering smell of old paper...

Well, maybe I should upload all of my Tolkien collection as it's quite big.
The higher shelf is in Russian, the lower is in English (mostly)
View attachment 6833
And below is photo of myself with my first LOTR edition (it is so dear to me)
View attachment 6835

That's so, so special!! I wish I had a bookshelf with a collection like that, but I read books on Kindle 🤪

I've gone through the nine pages here, and I didn't find anyone post the newest Finnish LR Book Cover...
Taru Sormusten Herrasta - (strict translate would be - Tale of the Lord of the Rings or more strict The tale of the Rings Lord)
compare: Sormusten Herra (strict translate would be - Lord of the Rings)

View attachment 7090

You sure that's a book? That looks like the real forging of the One Ring, burning through your table, to me 😬

This is the best Tolkien's biography I've read (I have a few). Unfortunately, it seems it was never translated into English
View attachment 6836

And this is "The Hobbit" for children (it's children version of children's book). And Elrond is a girl here
View attachment 6837

Off-topic, but why am I still seeing Russian as a styled Yiddish-English hybrid after poring over the alphabet for two months?!

 

[Starbrow]

Anyway... If you ever want to sell those 3, please PM me and we can discuss an exchange.

I appreciate the offer, but I'll NEVER sell them. I have the same affection for them that you do. They are dear, old friends who will stay with me.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

That edition was a big seller, so copies are floating around. I recommend keeping an eye on ebay, and other sites. A quick Google shows a number for sale at the moment.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

I saw one for $49, though it may be gone now. The key is to keep checking.

And if you have the time and patience, junk stores, flea markets, and yard sales. That set I showed earlier -- with a 1st edition Fellowship -- was picked up at a flea market for one dollar.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

One guy's take on book covers:

 

[Oromedur]

Old Silmarillion



New Silmarillion





There is an edition of LOTR covers I would dearly love to see again but can’t find them anywhere. I bought them from Waterstone’s in the UK circa 1991/92.
Pretty sure Fellowship was mostly dark green, The Two Towers was mostly blue and ROTK was mostly red. But the artwork was respectable and the image I have of the front of ROTK is Gandalf and Pippin riding to Minas Tirith with the palantir somehow visible.

 

[Aldarion]

Here there be my proud collection. As you can see, I'm a fan of the original Tolkien covers - in fact, the reason why I bought paperback edition of Lord of the Rings instead of hardcover is because paperback used Tolkien's cover while hardcover had some generic artwork.

 

[Oromedur]

Finally, finally I have managed to find online the versions of the LOTR volumes I first read.

I have chills.



Oh and this



Can anyone identify the artist from the above editions?

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

I'm not sure about the UT cover -- may be John Howe.

The LOTR covers are by Ted Naismith.

BTW, while checking online to make sure, I first clicked "Ted Naismith Plates" -- thinking of "plates" as those in books -- but these appeared:

So, I guess if you like his style enough, you can decorate your walls with it. 😊

 

[Olorgando]

Can anyone identify the artist from the above editions?

I'm not sure about the UT cover -- may be John Howe.

Yes, that Black Rider is by John Howe, plate 15 (of 18) of the illustrations in my Houghton Mifflin Harcourt edition - and on the back of the dust jacket, too.

Finally, finally I have managed to find online the versions of the LOTR volumes I first read.

I have chills.

I just noticed that the cover for RoTK (the red book) is the same as the cover of my hardcover edition of Robert Foster's "The Complete Guide to Middle-earth", which I posted here earlier, on page 9:

https://thetolkien.forum/threads/tolkien-book-covers.28961/post-535309