Tolkien-Inspired Art from the "Hobbit Craze" Years, 1965-1969: Untraced Works
14 Apr, 2023
2023-4-14 6:33:27 PM UTC
2023-4-14 6:33:27 PM UTC
Here is another article that I thought might interest some people here, from my Beyond Bree series.
Days of the Craze No. 23
Untraced Artwork from the Days of the Craze
by Dale Nelson
Appearing in 1965, the cover art for Ace Books’s LOTR reprints was sketchy, and competitor Ballantine’s art was semi-abstract. In fact, the artists hadn’t read the three books when they began designing their respective pictures. Caedmon’s 1967 Tolkien LP record jacket featured art of a distant landscape – poetic and evocative, but not highly representational.* Fan artists drew pictures for ‘zines that didn’t circulate widely. During the Hobbit Craze of 1965-1969, many years in the future were the days when Amon Hen issues would be boringly decorated with pencil drawings based on familiar photos of Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom in their movie make-up. Thus, in the Days of the Craze, many artists – fan or pro – were not traveling a well-trodden path when they set about to render Tolkienian characters and scenes. One wonders what became of much of their work.
Gary Hunnewell/Hildifons Took notes that the 1967-1968 fanzine Elbereth reported the availability of “two different psychedelic posters” with Tolkienian themes. And in a 1968 issue of Niekas, Claire Howard stated that the Queens College (Flushing, NY) cafeteria featured a Tolkienian menu and decorations. What did those posters and decorations look like?
My memory is that, when you entered the Coos Bay, Oregon, Public Library in the late 1960s, to your right was a small art gallery, and that for a time an abstract painting, in acrylics or perhaps oils, called The Lord of the Rings was displayed there. Recollection suggests a pattern of abundant flame- or leaf-shapes perhaps in reds, oranges, etc. Many years later, the library staff didn’t have any information about it to pass on to me. It is a pity I didn’t take a Brownie Instamatic snapshot of it, at least.
The Feb. 3 and Feb. 17, 1966, issues of The New York Review of Books contain a classified advertisement for “LOTHLORIEN A visual interpretation of Chapters Six and Seven from Book II of J. R. R. Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’: featured work in the first one-man exhibition by ALBERT VANDERBURG at Frederick Teuscher. Opening Saturday, February 12th 12-8 P.M.” A 1967 issue of Tolkien Journal (3:1) lists Albert Vanderburg as a contributor. He “is a modern American sculptor currently in London. He is the craftsman of the unfinished giant diorama ‘Lothlórien’, which depicts several scenes from the forest.” Page 20 prints a poem, in French, by Gilles Gerris, with a design signed “Vanderburg.” The design looks, to this writer, like a Rorschach blot; a blot at any rate.
A sizeable work of art is mentioned in Hunnewell’s review of Tolkien fandom for 1968. Minas Tirith Evening-Star 1:4 (3 Jan. 1968) reported that the Rohan-Dol Amroth Chapter (Monmouth, Illinois) of the Tolkien Society of America “created a 80” x 50” mural of the slaying of the Nazgûl.” What happened to that? Perhaps someone seeing this article can tell us more.
Author and artist Sterling Lanier designed “bronze figures” of LOTR characters.** Receiving them in 1965, Tolkien liked what he saw and consented (so far as he was concerned) to their mass-production. Unfortunately, his earlier deal, in which he had sold film rights, complicated things, and Lanier discovered that he could not go ahead. Lanier died in 2007. What became of those figures, or of the metal goblet adorned with the Ring inscription that an admirer sent to Tolkien, and which he used as a tobacco ash receptacle? (Letter #343) [Since publication of this article, I think a photo(s) of the figures have appeared online.]
In 1957 Tolkien was approached by Forrest J. Ackerman (who began to publish the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland at about the same time) and others regarding a film treatment of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was wary, but he did like the “visualizations for the film prepared by artist Ron Cobb, whom Tolkien compared favorably to Arthur Rackham” (Scull and Hammond, The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Reader’s Guide, p. 17). Have these pictures been published? Where are the originals?
What happened, also, to Erica Ducornet’s “Caradhras,” a drawing made especially for the University of Waterloo’s 1968 Middle-earth exhibition (see Days of the Craze No. 22)?
A non-Tolkienian digression: The untraceable thing that perhaps most fascinates the present author is the tape recording made on Dec. 4, 1962, with C. S. Lewis, Kingsley Amis, and Brian Aldiss, a conversation on science fiction. The transcript is readily available as “Unreal Estates.” But… what happened to the tape?
Notes and Acknowledgments:
*The Caedmon artwork was derived from a triptych slipcase design created by Pauline Baynes for a 1963 deluxe edition published by Allen and Unwin.
**Reference for the Lanier figures: http://www.betweenthecovers.com/btc/item/399812
Douglas Anderson’s comments on a draft of this paper enabled me to avoid a couple of errors – my thanks to Doug!
(c) 2023 Dale Nelson
Days of the Craze No. 23
Untraced Artwork from the Days of the Craze
by Dale Nelson
Appearing in 1965, the cover art for Ace Books’s LOTR reprints was sketchy, and competitor Ballantine’s art was semi-abstract. In fact, the artists hadn’t read the three books when they began designing their respective pictures. Caedmon’s 1967 Tolkien LP record jacket featured art of a distant landscape – poetic and evocative, but not highly representational.* Fan artists drew pictures for ‘zines that didn’t circulate widely. During the Hobbit Craze of 1965-1969, many years in the future were the days when Amon Hen issues would be boringly decorated with pencil drawings based on familiar photos of Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom in their movie make-up. Thus, in the Days of the Craze, many artists – fan or pro – were not traveling a well-trodden path when they set about to render Tolkienian characters and scenes. One wonders what became of much of their work.
Gary Hunnewell/Hildifons Took notes that the 1967-1968 fanzine Elbereth reported the availability of “two different psychedelic posters” with Tolkienian themes. And in a 1968 issue of Niekas, Claire Howard stated that the Queens College (Flushing, NY) cafeteria featured a Tolkienian menu and decorations. What did those posters and decorations look like?
My memory is that, when you entered the Coos Bay, Oregon, Public Library in the late 1960s, to your right was a small art gallery, and that for a time an abstract painting, in acrylics or perhaps oils, called The Lord of the Rings was displayed there. Recollection suggests a pattern of abundant flame- or leaf-shapes perhaps in reds, oranges, etc. Many years later, the library staff didn’t have any information about it to pass on to me. It is a pity I didn’t take a Brownie Instamatic snapshot of it, at least.
The Feb. 3 and Feb. 17, 1966, issues of The New York Review of Books contain a classified advertisement for “LOTHLORIEN A visual interpretation of Chapters Six and Seven from Book II of J. R. R. Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’: featured work in the first one-man exhibition by ALBERT VANDERBURG at Frederick Teuscher. Opening Saturday, February 12th 12-8 P.M.” A 1967 issue of Tolkien Journal (3:1) lists Albert Vanderburg as a contributor. He “is a modern American sculptor currently in London. He is the craftsman of the unfinished giant diorama ‘Lothlórien’, which depicts several scenes from the forest.” Page 20 prints a poem, in French, by Gilles Gerris, with a design signed “Vanderburg.” The design looks, to this writer, like a Rorschach blot; a blot at any rate.
A sizeable work of art is mentioned in Hunnewell’s review of Tolkien fandom for 1968. Minas Tirith Evening-Star 1:4 (3 Jan. 1968) reported that the Rohan-Dol Amroth Chapter (Monmouth, Illinois) of the Tolkien Society of America “created a 80” x 50” mural of the slaying of the Nazgûl.” What happened to that? Perhaps someone seeing this article can tell us more.
Author and artist Sterling Lanier designed “bronze figures” of LOTR characters.** Receiving them in 1965, Tolkien liked what he saw and consented (so far as he was concerned) to their mass-production. Unfortunately, his earlier deal, in which he had sold film rights, complicated things, and Lanier discovered that he could not go ahead. Lanier died in 2007. What became of those figures, or of the metal goblet adorned with the Ring inscription that an admirer sent to Tolkien, and which he used as a tobacco ash receptacle? (Letter #343) [Since publication of this article, I think a photo(s) of the figures have appeared online.]
In 1957 Tolkien was approached by Forrest J. Ackerman (who began to publish the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland at about the same time) and others regarding a film treatment of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was wary, but he did like the “visualizations for the film prepared by artist Ron Cobb, whom Tolkien compared favorably to Arthur Rackham” (Scull and Hammond, The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Reader’s Guide, p. 17). Have these pictures been published? Where are the originals?
What happened, also, to Erica Ducornet’s “Caradhras,” a drawing made especially for the University of Waterloo’s 1968 Middle-earth exhibition (see Days of the Craze No. 22)?
A non-Tolkienian digression: The untraceable thing that perhaps most fascinates the present author is the tape recording made on Dec. 4, 1962, with C. S. Lewis, Kingsley Amis, and Brian Aldiss, a conversation on science fiction. The transcript is readily available as “Unreal Estates.” But… what happened to the tape?
Notes and Acknowledgments:
*The Caedmon artwork was derived from a triptych slipcase design created by Pauline Baynes for a 1963 deluxe edition published by Allen and Unwin.
**Reference for the Lanier figures: http://www.betweenthecovers.com/btc/item/399812
Douglas Anderson’s comments on a draft of this paper enabled me to avoid a couple of errors – my thanks to Doug!
(c) 2023 Dale Nelson
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