Barbara Remington was commissioned to paint the artwork for the first Ballantine paperback editions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Last year an interview with her conducted by N Marion Hage was published on Andwerve.com, but that site has since changed management and hands, and is not currently available online.

Mithril Miniatures (http://www.mithril.ie) just received some older stock and they included about 20 rare figures that were previously unavailable on their website. These include extremely rare figures from the Heroines of Middle-earth series and famous named characters like Boromir fighting orc and Aragorn fighting the Orc Chief as well as more obscure personalities, which include Oropher - Elven King and Anarion.

On June 7,2007 Raynor Memorial Libraries celebrated the 50th anniversary of the acquisition by cataloging the 1,000th item in the secondary collection.

But also: on June 7, 1957 professor J. R. R. Tolkien delivered the manuscripts for three books--The Hobbit, Farmer Giles of Ham, and Mr. Bliss--to a London antiquarian book dealer who had purchased the author's collection for Marquette University.

On October 4, 2007, 4:00 p.m. there will be a conference by John D. Rateliff as part of the 50th anniversary celebration: "'A Kind of Elvish Craft': Tolkien as Literary Craftsman", at Raynor Library's Conference Center.

UPDATE: THIS MOOT HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO UNFORTUNATE EMPLOYMENT SCHEDULE CHANGES SEE BELOW FOR NEW DATE

With many thanks to Northeast Tolkien Society member Amy Hitotsubashi the Northeast Tolkien Society will commence its monthly Mythopoeic Discussion Group moots at St. Paul's Library, MONDAY MAY 14th, 2007, 5pm to 9pm. We will be discussing The Children of Hurin, and Tolkien and Shakespeare, the work of SK Thoth (forthcoming publications and recent CD), for those who have read them, if you have not you are welcome to discuss this with us, we encourage you to do so but is not a requirement. If the majority wishes we can move to any other discussion of the work of the Inklings.

On this day we will also narrow down the nominee list for the 2006/07 Imperishable Flame Award. If you wish to nominate someone in each category you will need to bring your desire to defend your choice amongst the group as you nominate. We will select 3 for each category and present this years list on herenistarion.org

We also encourage you to bring anything Tolkien and Inklings, or a connected fiction, fantasy, piece of history to the group. We may not necessarily get to everything this particular night but can place it on the agenda for the next moot.


But it will not be the only topic, we would like to encourage aspiring writers to openly read and discuss your work with the group, allowing it open for ideas, and insight from one another.
Also according to Amy for those who wish to meet before and/or after the moot:
"There is a good pizza place around the corner on Court St, a more up-scale Italian place on the corner, and numerous eateries 2+ blocks away on Smith and on Court."

Directions to and from St. Pauls within NYC, from Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn see this MTA Page for information on taking the F line to Carroll Gardens Brooklyn http://www.mta.info/nyct/service/fline.htm

Reports are coming in that there were 450 copies available total, with a bookplate pasted in that was signed by Alan Lee and Christopher Tolkien. There was a limit of two copies per person in line, and they were all sold in under an hour. There are already two copies on eBay, going for $30 to $40 with multiple bids in just the first hour or so of bidding. Expect these to come and go a lot in the next few days on eBay I expect...

After the first edition in January of 2006, with more than 4000 people attending, from the 28 April to 1 May 2007 returns to Buccinasco (Milan) the Festival Tolkieniana Net. Bigger and Better than last year!

The Children of Húrin Release Party is an online event which will take place around the release date of The Children of Húrin, the new book by J.R.R. Tolkien, due for worldwide release on Tuesday 17th April 2007.

The release party will take place online at irc.tolkiengateway.net for three days in a row on April 15th, 16th and 17th 2007, and is being organized by TolkienLibrary.com and TolkienGateway.net. There will be an after party on April 18th.

Next to chatting there will be numerous games, competitions, giveaways and Q&A’s with special guests like David Brawn, James Dunning, Jeff Murray, Johan Vanhecke, Mark T. Hooker, Matt Blessing, Michael Drout, Michaël Duveaux, Nils Ivar Agøy, Roger Garland, Verlyn Flieger, ...

FIND ALL INFO HERE: http://www.tolkienlibrary.com

It was a big honor to be asked to release the first illustration of The Children of Hurin. Of course I want to share it: here you go.

Here you can find an interview with Squire, one of the contributors of the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia and also the man behind the J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia - A Reader's Diary.In october 2006 We saw the publication of Michael Drout's J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. From day one we could read on Michael Drout's blog the news that instead of 2500 there were only made 800 copies of this book. He was very frustrated in the way that the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia was rushed into print without adequate final editing and not happy with the result. Then there where not many reviews on line, except from some contributors. Maybe the book turned out to be too expensive. It seems most people expected the book to be something 'more' for such a lot of money. Ironically if they had printed more copies, the price might have been cheaper. Still, I believe the project was a good one, and so do many people. Especially the on line community has now taken over the project and is starting to turn the book into a very usefull unit after all. There are some interesting projects, of which the J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia - A Reader's Diary is by far the most interesting contribution so far.

While the publication date of both volumes of The History of the Hobbit by John D. Rateliff is still uncertain, probably around may or june, it is now certain that we will get a commemorative boxed set in September. This box wil comprise a hardback gift edition of The Hobbit and the two-volume companion as seen above. It will be called THE HOBBIT, MR BAGGINS AND THE RETURN TO BAG-END: Boxed Set Anniversary Collectors edition. For now i'm unable to give any images, but I do have some info already.

Have been updating the Children of Hurin FAQ! After spending some hours at the library of congress backhand i managed to find the table of contents of the Children of Hurin. This is of course of a proof copy. For US copy right law they need to dump a copy there, so that is how i came to the idea to look there to find the contents! Also added the diary and calendar which will be Children of Hurin related in 2008, a summary of the tale of Children of Hurin and some more info on the different covers and editions... enjoy!

A 20 foot tall stainless steel statue of Treebeard has gotten approval to be installed in Moseley Village Green, a suburb of Birmingham. The artist is J. R. R. Tolkien's great-nephew Tim Tolkien.

Greetings Friends,
It is our hope that this finds you well. We have been planning a larger
newsletter concerning ongoing society news but wished to first send this
one due to its priority. Several news items have been posted on
herenistarion.org concerning the Silmarillion Conference and our Tolkien
Reading Day event.


1) SILMARILLION CONFERENCE CANCELLED:

Due to some logistical decisions we have decided to not hold this
conference. We apologize to those who submitted abstracts for
presentation and locals who inquired about attending. But on the bright
side we are publishing one or several (depending upon the amount of papers
submitted) issues of Parma Nole dedicated to the Silmarillion.

If you are interested in submitting a Silmarillion themed paper or artwork
for our journal please send abstracts and art info to the Editor Jessica
Burke cochair@...

However, this cancellation leaves room for us to hold a smaller event. See
news below.


2) Tolkien Reading Day Event Sunday March 25th 2007
(Official Tolkien Reading Day Press Release below)

The Northeast Tolkien Society is holding its own Tolkien Reading Day
event, and have selected two possible locales. A poll for readers and
potential attendees is available on our site herenistarion.org. Please
vote now for time is limited and we must make reservations at either
location.

For more information on either choice please link to the following sites:

a) Frodo's Restaurant. http://www.tastethemagic.com
(Pleasantville, NY) We held a lovely, small intimate event here last year
and it turned out wonderful. If this turns out to be the location of
Tolkien Reading Day, we can all meet and travel together.

b) Fiddlesticks Bar and Pub http://www.fiddlestickspub.com/index.html
(Lower Manhattan, NYC) an alternate choice to Frodo's with a nice rear
private room, the only drawback is it may cost a fee to rent the room,
which means charging attendees to rent the space. The advantage to this is
that it is central to NYC.

If you are interested in attending please email Anthony
(chairman@...) with Tolkien Reading Day RSVP as your
subject header asap or no later than March 15th 2007

Four days ago I brought you the first view on the final cover of the standard hardback edition (ISBN 0-00-724622-6), today I can share something else! Here is a sneak peek on how the deluxe slipcased edition will look like. This special one-off slipcased edition, quarterbound in quality materials and embossed to match the classic de luxe editions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, will prove irresistible to collectors and fans and as an attractive gift.

"The Silmarillion: Themes, Narratives, Comparative Studies" sponsored by the Departments of English and Religious Studies of St. Francis College and the Northeast Tolkien Society to have taken place from April 20-22 in Brooklyn, New York has been cancelled.

We all know this year we will celebrate the 70th anniversary of The Hobbit and the 30th anniversary of The Silmarillion. Also this year we will see the publication of a brand new Tolkien book, The Children of Hurin. But in Oktober 2007 we will also get a brand new edition of the long unavailable children’s story Mr. Bliss, written and illustrated by Tolkien himself. Originally published in 1982, the book has been out of print since the 1990s. This edition marks the 25th anniversary of publication.

On September 18th, 2006 The Children of Húrin was announced. Set to be released worldwide on 17 April 2007 the unfinished work edited by Christopher Tolkien will finally be released after 30 years of development. Today the final cover by Alan Lee has been unveiled.

On May 4-6, 2007 the University of Jena in Germany will host an international Tolkien conference on a scale never seen in Germany before. Walking Tree Publishers (CH), the German Tolkien Society and Jena will offer the latest in Tolkien research and enlightening debates with speakers from all over Europe.

«Saint-Ursanne La Fantastique» awaits you in summer 2007: an exclusive exhibition of John Howe paintings in the cloisters and cellar gallery, fantastical installations all around the city, classical and Celtic concerts, medieval festivities, encounters around J. R. R. Tolkien’s novels, documentaries and evening cinema in the reconverted factory “Fours à Chaux”.