Letters from Father Christmas Deluxe Edition in planning stages

Hmm...not sure how I feel about this. I think it's a bit silly at this point. Mr Bliss will be next. What then?

Karl wrote:
Hmm...not sure how I feel about this. I think it's a bit silly at this point. Mr Bliss will be next. What then?

Goblin Feet?

Songs for the Philologists....

(Mostly kidding, but as it falls out of copyright in 25 years I am sure they will do something with it before then.)

192 pages suggests the format of the 2012 hardback (or paperback if you look at the copyright page). I realize number of pages may not yet be set in stone. The conveniently sized 2012 edition is a smaller format than the deluxe series. You've got to think that this will be printed on glossy art paper which will be a major departure for the series.

I’m hazarding a guess that the page count is bogus - just copied from the current edition.

I do agree with the paper - I really want a high quality glossy paper for this.

Urulöké wrote:
Songs for the Philologists....

(Mostly kidding, but as it falls out of copyright in 25 years I am sure they will do something with it before then.)

Songs is an interesting one, where the Tolkien Estate - at least appear to - have overstepped the line, copyright-wise. If you want to get access to a scan from a library that has one, forget it. You can only go and see it in person (no cameras). How much of this is libraries being overcautious, ("because, Tolkien"), and how much it is the estate preventing easy access (as they have done for much of the material held), is a bit unclear.

With Songs for the Philologists, it was typeset by students (so the Estate have no ownership of the overall look/shape of the publication -- it was not produced or endorsed by Tolkien), 12 (IIRC) of the 29 poems are Tolkien's, so they undoubtedly have copyright ownership of those, 2 are E.V Gordon's, so his estate owns those rights, and the rest are in the public domain. Personally, having done a lot of work around this little volume, I found the public domain content to be the most interesting, as it has deeper "roots".

A proper facsimile edition on period-authentic paper would be nice.... (one day I'll get back onto my paper quest)...

IMHO, Deluxe Letters from Father Christmas is absurd. £15 book in a slipcase for £60, which collectors will buy because they have already purchased the first 50 or however many we are at. I would mind less if the deluxe editions were actually deluxe, but they really aren't. They are expensive paper covered books in paper covered slipcases. At this point they are just a boring exercise in box ticking. I'm all for uniformity, but.... Sigh.

Really looking forward to the deluxe edition of Tolkien's favourite shopping lists in 2020.

Interesting. I had asked here some time ago about the “best” edition of FCL to buy, as I believe there were several editions with (slightly) different content?

At least, there was also an older edition that came with actual envelopes styled the way Tolkien originally designed them.

This will be an interesting deluxe edition - though I do hope they give it a good treatment and don’t somehow botch it up like they did the so-called deluxe HoME.

I think the first (1976) edition FCL is probably the essential one to own, especially if you also already own Artist and Illustrator (and you probably do).