Tolkien 📔Book Covers

[Elthir]

Heathery?

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Dickory dock? 🤔

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Feathery duck?

OK, I'll stop now.

 

[Elthir]

And I will take my leave . . . for now at least.

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

Picked up an older copy of The Hobbit today from a vintage flea market

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Is that a "hardbacked" library version?

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

Is that a "hardbacked" library version?

Yeah, 1970 $5 lol

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Now you need to find one with the lion. 😀

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

Now you need to find one with the lion. 😀

This one?

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit First... book

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Yep -- they removed it after complaints from the author. They kept the emus and the "Christmas tree" though. 😂

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

Going this German copy from Reddit that Mr. O might appreciate

https://www.reddit.com/r/lotr/comments/qouz3l

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Why the "Little" Hobbit, I wonder? 🤔

 

[Olorgando]

Why the "Little" Hobbit, I wonder? 🤔

Ask the publishers. The first translation of TH was from 1957 by Wolfgang Scherf - and the title at first translated into "Little Hobbit and the Big - or Great - Wizard"! It was then changed to "The Little Hobbit."
The new translation in 1997 by Wolfgang Krege had the translated original title "Der Hobbit".
Krege also translated "The Silmarillion" in 1978, Humphrey Carpenter's "Biography" in 1979 and "Letters" in 1991, TH as mentioned above, a somewhat controversial "The Lord of the Rings" in 2000 and Tom Shippey's "Author of the Century" in 2002.

These are the book covers of the German translations (book club licensed editions) that I bought for my wife many years ago.
RoTK, btw, is quite the shortest of the three books, as the only thing it has in the way of appendices is part (v) of Appendix A, "A part of the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen".

 

[Endrasil]

One thing I haven't seen discussed in a while are the various editions of Tolkien's books and their covers. I know there are countless versions out there but I'd love to see your favorites. I'm in the U.S. so I'm sure some of our international users have their own editions that they find special and that a lot of us may not have seen before. Some of the international versions I have seen are gorgeous! I'd love to see what you've got and I'm sure other members would too.

The first time I read Lord of the Rings, I borrowed the books from the library so these covers are definitely special to me. I love the simplicity of them.

This is the current hardback edition that I own but if I could find the older ones from above, I'd buy them for sure.

I'll dig up my copy of The Hobbit and share it too but I'd love to see covers from your country or that are special to you!

🥮

I am sure someone already posted this cover, but my first copy of the Lord of the Rings was the 50th Anniversary Edition and I absolutely love it!

 

[Þráinn Þórhallsson]

Like how the German version actually spells out more of the Authors name then just the family one.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Not a book cover, but a little piece of ephemera I discovered stuck in one of my books: a flyer for the original publication of The Silmarillion.

 

[ZehnWaters]

And these of course! More Tolkien!

Those are the ones my parents both had.

 

[Elthir]

Are you saying I'm old?

 

[Olorgando]

Are you saying I'm old?

Well, even your puddy tat avatar has grown grey around the muzzle ... 😁

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Are you saying I'm old?

That's nothin', man -- my first were the original psychedelic covers. Faaar out! 🧟‍♂️