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Guide to Tolkien's Letters
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18 Oct, 2011
2011-10-18 7:35:11 PM UTC
Book arrived today!

As I'm one of the beginner collectors, I saw this as a great chance to secure a publication that I strongly believe will have a collection value in the future. (When the 1989 Oliphaunt: Beastly Verse was published, I was still in primary school.) Perhaps this is already being reflected in the evolution of the price: I bought it a week ago for £16.76 and the same bookseller now has it for £31.44. I should say, though, that it can be ordered for a much cheaper price from the publishers' own website, at least for the moment being.

Since the publishers, The Child's World, have chosen to show off the entire book on their website, it's perfectly open for anyone to form their own opinion of the illustrations or investigate the contents of the book.

Produced as a "School & Library Binding", the quality is top notch: sturdy covers, glossy finish (plastic film), alkaline paper (slows the degradation of paper quality). Indeed made to survive many a child's rough reading!
18 Oct, 2011
2011-10-18 7:55:53 PM UTC
The publishers don't seem to want to ship to England, though.

- wellinghall
19 Oct, 2011
2011-10-19 8:44:06 AM UTC
>The publishers don't seem to want to ship to England, though.

Book Depository has it for $22.85
22 Oct, 2011
2011-10-22 3:47:01 PM UTC
The publisher's website lists the book as "withdrawn from sale" now.
22 Nov, 2011
2011-11-22 9:13:22 AM UTC
Does anyone know why this was withdrawn from sale? I had ordered a copy from BD before it became unavailable (and it finally arrived today more than 5 weeks after being posted -- I had given it up for lost). I notice that the copyright states "(c) 2012" (rather than 2011) and I wondered if it perhaps had to be pulled because of legal reasons related to this...
22 Nov, 2011
2011-11-22 4:59:32 PM UTC
I heard from HarperCollins that this edition had been reported to the Estate for review - there clearly is some confusion over it between the publisher and the Estate.

As far as I know the dispute has not been resolved yet, but it appears that the Estate asked the publisher to remove it from sale and the publisher complied.
23 Nov, 2011
2011-11-23 2:44:38 AM UTC
Since the only copyright notice in the book is to the Peterson Publishing Company, there's no acknowledgment of Tolkien's copyright, there's no mention of permission to reprint his poem, and Childs World at one time had the whole of the book online at Scribd, it's no wonder that the Tolkien Estate might object. We do wonder if the publisher knew that "Oliphaunt" is protected intellectual property, or believed that The Lord of the Rings had lost its American copyright, which it never did. Childs World issued Oliphaunt as one of a series of single poems for children, and all of the others, by either Robert Louis Stevenson or Edward Lear, are old enough to be in the public domain.

Wayne & Christina
23 Nov, 2011
2011-11-23 4:42:21 AM UTC

Findegil wrote:
Since the only copyright notice in the book is to the Peterson Publishing Company, there's no acknowledgment of Tolkien's copyright, there's no mention of permission to reprint his poem

Yes, I also noticed the lack of adequate copyright attribution when I gave it a closer inspection. Seems like an odd thing for a publisher to get wrong, though. I would have expected that IP rights and authorisation would be the very first things to address before even embarking on such a project.

Nice little book, mind. Might even end up being rare...

Stu
23 Nov, 2011
2011-11-23 3:45:00 PM UTC
Just out of curiosity (since I don't have the older book) - did the publishers of the 1989 Oliphaunt: Beastly Verse receive permission to reprint the poem, or did it also fail to acknowledge Tolkien's copyright?
23 Nov, 2011
2011-11-23 7:45:00 PM UTC
The 1989 Calico edition of Oliphaunt says it was reprinted with the permission of Houghton Mifflin Co.
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