All titles are by J. R. R. Tolkien.The Tolkien Reader...25th Printing, April 1976...Ballantine Books
The Tolkien Reader...29th Printing, January 1978...Ballantine Books
A Tolkien Miscellany...SFBC
Tales From The Perilous Realm...Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Tree And Leaf, including the poem Mythopoeia...Houghton Mifflin Company
Farmer Giles Of Ham, 50th Anniversary Edition...Houghton Mifflin Company
Farmer Giles Of Ham...Houghton Mifflin Company
Smith Of Wootton Major...Houghton Mifflin Company
The Adventures Of Tom Bombadil...Houghton Mifflin Company
Smith Of Wootton Major & Farmer Giles Of Ham...1st Printing, 1969...Ballantine Books
Smith Of Wooton Major & Farmer Giles Of Ham...17th Printing, May 1978...Ballantine Books
Smith Of Wootton Major & Farmer Giles Of Ham...Nelson Doubleday, Inc./Book Club Edition
The Tolkien Reader was my vade mecum for an intense couple of years, as you can see from the condition of my first copy. It got dragged along to school, on shopping expeditions, journeys to my grandmother's house, camping; in short, any trip where there was likely to be stretches of dull time to be filled. The Reader includes Peter S. Beagle's essay Tolkien's Magic Ring, The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son, Tree and Leaf, Farmer Giles of Ham, and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. My favorite part of the whole book must be The Sea Bell, telling the story of someone who journeys to a magical land across the sea, is at first enchanted by, then arrogantly transgresses it, and is banished back to mortal lands to wander disconsolately. This poem seems to perfectly encapsulate the experience of anyone who has travelled through books to realms of wonder, and then returns to the quieter experience of real life.
A Tolkien Miscellany and Tales From The Perilous Realm are also omnibuses: A Tolkien Miscellany includes Smith of Wootton Major, Farmer Giles of Ham, Tree and Leaf, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight/Pearl/Sir Orfeo; Tales from the Perilous Realm includes Roverandom, Farmer Giles of Ham, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, Smith of Wootton Major, Leaf by Niggle, and On Fairy-Stories. Tree and Leaf contains not only Leaf by Niggle and On Fairy-Stories but also the complete poem of Mythopoeia, not available elsewhere. The 50th Anniversary Edition of Farmer Giles Of Ham includes an introduction and notes by noted Tolkien scholars Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond (look to see their names again later), the first manuscript version of the story, and all the notes and writing of the proposed but unfinished sequel.
A supplemental post should immediately follow, with more scans of the covers of titles in this list.
Book Count: 1628.
I had to look up that term. For some reason the formatting in Bloglines squished it into one word.
ReplyDeleteI had many of these through the years. My current vade mecum is "The Essential Thomas Paine."