Black and White Ogre Country

26 January 2009 will see the publication of Black and White Ogre Country: The Lost Tales of Hilary Tolkien, a book edited by Angela Gardner and illustrated by Jef Murray. Hilary Tolkien was the younger brother of J.R.R. Tolkien.

The international launch will take place at The Crown, Market Square, Stony Stratford (near Milton Keynes) on January 30th at 7pm. There will be first edition copies of Black and White Ogre Country for sale and Angela Gardner will give a presentation in which she will reveal more about how the book came about, its contents and the artwork. Angela will also introduce a further biographical book that, it is hoped, will appear later in the year.

Buy this book at Amazon.co.uk

Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien lived through turbulent times. Born in 1894 in Bloemfontein, South Africa, he returned to England in 1895 with his mother Mabel and his brother Ronald (J.R.R. Tolkien). After the death of their father Arthur, the brothers settled with their mother in Sarehole, a village to the south of Birmingham, that was to become a strong influence on both of their lives. Later they moved to Birmingham to be nearer to Ronald’s school but in 1904 were orphaned when their mother succumbed to diabetes.

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New Year Update

This latest update includes a number of new editions and re-issues as well as an updated section of the Bibliography. The new editions include:

The Hobbit - A gift edition from The Book People, similar to the 70th Anniversary Edition issued by HarperCollins, but printed on good quality paper like to that used for the recent Deluxe Editions.

Tales from the Perilous Realm - A new expanded edition that now includes Roverandom, an introduction by Tom Shippey, an afterword by Alan Lee and Tolkien’s essay On Fairy Stories, together with Farmer Giles of Ham, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, Smith of Wootton Major and Leaf by Niggle.

A Deluxe Edition of Tales from the Perilous Realm has also been issued in a style similar to the previous deluxe editions. The first 500 copies from the impression are signed by Alan Lee and have a different ISBN to the unsigned copies.

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After Tolkien: 1974-1976

Progress with the bibliography has been very slow lately - a new job is to blame! The last part to be revised and expanded was the 1974-1976 section. Included amongst the additions were:

Bilbo’s Last Song jigsaw
J.R.R. Tolkien’s Father Christmas jigsaw
Basic Quenya
C.S. Lewis: A Biography
J.R.R. Tolkien: Architect of Middle-earth
Modern Fantasy: Five Studies

Also added recently were the expanded edition of On Fairy-stories and the new paperback editions from HarperCollins.

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More on the 2nd Edition Hobbit

It has been a quiet month at TolkienBooks.net. There have been just two updates to the bibliography, both courtesy of fellow collectors - THANK YOU!

First up is an image of A Spring Harvest by G.B. Smith, an anthology of poetry including an introductory note by JRRT. It is especially pleasing to see this very uncommon book at last! The second update relates to the First Paperback Edition of The Lord of the Rings. The size of the book was reduced from 210 x 140mm to 204 x 128mm beginning with the 4th Impression.

To compensate for the lack of activity I have extracted details of print run sizes for the Second American Edition of The Hobbit from correspondence between the publisher Houghton Mifflin and its British counterpart George Allen & Unwin. The information is taken directly from Allen & Unwin publishing ledgers and associated correspondence, and is presented here together with previously published details of the Second British Edition.

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