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Publishing The Lord of the Rings
The First Impression of RotK
VI  The First Boxed Edition
VII  The Readers Union Edition
VIII  The First Deluxe Edition
IX  Printing and Binding LotR
XIV  LotR: A Bibliography
XV  LotR: A Bibliography of Slipcases

The History of Middle-earth series
A Guide to the Contents
II  Prices on Dustwrappers
III  Original Retail Prices
IV  Print Run Sizes
The Guild Publishing Editions
VI  Shaping of Middle-earth Wrapper
VII  Peoples of Middle-earth Pulped?

Other Articles
Christopher Tolkien Bibliography
I Think I've Got A Hobbit
Missing Images
Nasty Tricksy Hobbits
Printing and Binding The Hobbit
Songs for the Philologists
The Princess Hobbit
-- Ferguson Dewar
-- Letter from J. R. R. Tolkien
-- Gandalf: Not 'Magician' but 'Wizard'
-- Visions of Gollum
-- Of Smaug and the Jabberwock
-- Magazine Gallery
Tolkien Calendars
Tolkien the Esperantist?
Tolkien's Languages and Alphabets
Unpublished Manuscript Found?

Promotional Display for the 1974 Tolkien CalendarDuring Tolkien's last years, when it was becoming apparent that he would not produce any more major titles, Allen & Unwin looked around for other ways of cashing in on the extraordinary interest that had grown up around Tolkien and Middle- earth.  Their first experiments were with posters - A Map of Middle-earth, There and Back Again and Bilbo's Last Song - which had some limited success.

In early 1973 A&U decided that a calendar might be a good seller.  They selected some already published illustrations from The Hobbit together with a number of pictures that illustrated The Lord of the Rings and even one or two for the then unpublished Silmarillion.  The 1974 calendar sold well and, after a break in 1975, four more calendars were produced for 1976 to 1979 featuring more of Tolkien's illustrations. The drawings and paintings were then collected together in 1979 and issued in a 'coffee-table' style book called Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The supply of Tolkien's own illustrations had been exhausted, but Ralph Bakshi's animated adaption of LotR came to the rescue and another calendar featuring stills from the film was produced for 1980.  After this there was another a break until Rayner Unwin managed to persuade the Tolkien Estate to give their consent to use illustrations by other artists for further calendars.

Allen & Unwin had started to use Roger Garland to illustrate the covers of Tolkien paperbacks, so he was first in line to illustrate the 1984 calendar.  Inger Edelfeldt followed in 1985, and in 1986 the calendar featured some of Michael Hague's illustrations for The Hobbit. Many other artists have contributed pictures in subsequent years, but the work of three artists is seen most often - that of Alan Lee, John Howe and Ted Nasmith.

All 'official' Tolkien Calendars issued by Tolkien's British publishers are shown below.
Click on an image to see a larger image and details of the artists and illustrations included, ISBN numbers, etc.

If you wish to see a much wider selection of Tolkien calendars from all over the world then you should visit The Compleat Gyde to Tolkien Calendars.

The table below shows where the days and dates given in calendars for different years are the same. This is handy if you want to re-use your old calendars - after all if you have gone to the trouble of collecting all those calendars from the 70s and 80s you might as well get some use out of them!

1972
2000

1973
1979
1990
2001
2007
2018

1974
1985
1991
2002
2013
2019

1975
1986
1997
2003
2014
2025

1976
2004

1977
1983
1994
2005
2011
2022

1978
1989
1995
2006
2017
2023

1980
2008

1981
1987
1998
2009
2015
2026

1982
1993
1999
2010
2021
2027

1984
2012

1988
2016

1992
2020

1996
2024

Equivalent years can be calculated for the period 1901-2099 using the following formulae:

  • If year X is a leap year, you can reuse its calendar in year X+28.
  • If year X is the first year after a leap year, you can reuse its calendar in years X+6, X+17, and X+28.
  • If year X is the second year after a leap year, you can reuse its calendar in years X+11, X+17, and X+28.
  • If year X is the third year after a leap year, you can reuse its calendar in years X+11, X+22, and X+28.

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The J.R.R. Tolkien Calendar 1974. Issued in a card mailing envelope
The J.R.R. Tolkien Calendar 1974
 
The Hobbit Calendar 1976. Issued in a card mailing envelope
The Hobbit Calendar 1976
 
The Lord of the Rings 1977 Calendar. Issued in a card mailing envelope
The Lord of the Rings 1977 Calendar
 
The Silmarillion Calendar 1978. Issued in a card mailing envelope
The Silmarillion Calendar 1978
 
J.R.R. Tolkien Calendar 1979. Issued in a card mailing envelope
J.R.R. Tolkien Calendar 1979
 
The Lord of the Rings Film Calendar 1980. Issued in a clear cellophane envelope
The Lord of the Rings Film Calendar 1980
 
The J.R.R. Tolkien Calendar 1984. Issued in a card mailing envelope
The J.R.R. Tolkien Calendar 1984
 
Tolkien Calendar 1985. Issued in a card mailing envelope
Tolkien Calendar 1985
 
The 1986 Tolkien Calendar. Issued in a card mailing envelope
The 1986 Tolkien Calendar
 
The 1987 Tolkien Calendar. Issued in a card mailing envelope
The 1987 Tolkien Calendar
 
The Tolkien Calendar 1988. Issued in a card mailing envelope
The Tolkien Calendar 1988
 
The Tolkien Calendar 1989. Issued in a card mailing envelope
The Tolkien Calendar 1989
 
Tolkien Calendar 1990. Issued in a card mailing envelope, although some copies may have been issued shrink-wrapped
Tolkien Calendar 1990
 
The Tolkien Calendar 1991. Issued in a card mailing envelope
The Tolkien Calendar 1991
 
Tolkien - The Centenary Calendar 1992. Issued in a card mailing envelope
Tolkien - The Centenary Calendar 1992
 
The Tolkien Calendar 1993. Issued in a card mailing envelope, although some copies may have been issued shrink-wrapped
The Tolkien Calendar 1993
 
1994 J.R.R. Tolkien Calendar. Issued in a card mailing envelope
1994 J.R.R. Tolkien Calendar
 
1995 J.R.R. Tolkien Calendar. Issued in a card mailing envelope
1995 J.R.R. Tolkien Calendar
 
1996 J.R.R. Tolkien Calendar. Issued in a card mailing envelope
1996 J.R.R. Tolkien Calendar
 
Tolkien Calendar 1997. Issued shrink-wrapped
Tolkien Calendar 1997
 
Tolkien Calendar 1998. Issued shrink-wrapped
Tolkien Calendar 1998
 
Tolkien Calendar 1999. Issued shrink-wrapped
Tolkien Calendar 1999
 
Tolkien Calendar 2000. Issued shrink-wrapped
Tolkien Calendar 2000
 
Tolkien Calendar 2001. Issued shrink-wrapped
Tolkien Calendar 2001
 
Tolkien Calendar 2002. Issued shrink-wrapped
Tolkien Calendar 2002
 
Tolkien Calendar 2003. Issued shrink-wrapped
Tolkien Calendar 2003
 
Tolkien Calendar 2004. Issued shrink-wrapped
Tolkien Calendar 2004
 
Tolkien 2005 - LotR 50th Anniversary Calendar. Issued shrink-wrapped
Tolkien 2005 - LotR 50th Anniversary Calendar
 
Tolkien 2006 - The Hobbit Calendar. Issued shrink-wrapped
Tolkien 2006 - The Hobbit Calendar
 
Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings 2007. Issued shrink-wrapped
Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings 2007
 
Tolkien Calendar 2008 - The Children of Húrin. Issued shrink-wrapped
Tolkien Calendar 2008 - The Children of Húrin
 
Tolkien Calendar 2009. Issued shrink-wrapped
Tolkien Calendar 2009
 

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