Shown here are five books I received from my grandma this Christmas. (She brought a box of old books and we were allowed to sift through and take what we liked.) I found these old LotR/Tolkien ones that I've never seen before (or at least, in real life). The last one I find most interesting!!
First:
These three copies of LotR, "The Authorized Canadian Editions" (whatever that's supposed to mean) published 1971.
The books have rather small print, very slightly difficult to read. There is just a four-page foreword to FotR, then a two-page map. This is the old map, I assume by Christopher Tolkien? For some reason the other map, the map of the Shire looks rather...simpler. @_@ Nothing particularly special in TTT or RotK.
Secondly: The Tolkien Reader (you may have heard of it), first publishing, 1966.
Interesting! The contents include:
-Publisher's Note + "Tolkien's Magic Ring", an appreciation by Peter Beagle.
-"The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son", including a short play.
-Tree and Leaf, which has:
~"On Fairy-Stories", Tolkien's famous (81 page!) essay
~Leaf by Niggle (familiar)
then
-"Farmer Giles of Ham" <3 Complete with illustrations! o.o Rather amusing ones, actually...no idea who they're by.
-"The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" <3 again. More illustrations, but better...more whimsical and fantastic like.
And lastly:
Tolkien: A Look Behind the Lord of the Rings -- by Lin Carter -- Published 1969
This one I found quite interesting. It contains chapters on Tolkien, the books, allegory, fairy stories, other folk tales, sources, and names. But what really made me go O.O was flipping it open and finding this paragraph:
Chapter 3: Tolkien Today
Since completing
The Lord of the Rings, Professor Tolkien has lived quietly in a small, modest house, one of a row of similar suburban homes, near Oxford. More recently, owing in part to the distractions created by the fame of
LOTR, the professor has moved to a home that provids a little more privately. His children are grown up and busy with their own lives and careers (his son, Christopher Tolkien, has followed in the Professor’s footsteps and is now a Lecturer in Old English at New College, Oxford). Professor and Mrs. Tolkien live alone.
Isn’t that awesome? <3 Tolkien was still alive, and that chapter is about him. It isn’t much, but still...and I love this part:
I can well imagine how embarrassing it must be to a scholar of his distinction to realize that one college campus and in espresso shop he is a popular celebrity, almost a folk-hero like Bobby Dylan
XD
Anyway, yes, very happy with these. I don’t know how much they’re worth, probably not much besides sentimental and happy (:P) value...but will keep!
