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Tolkien artist Barbara Remington died yesterday

24 Jan, 2020 (edited)
2020-1-24 2:12:50 PM UTC

https://accessnepa.com/early-access/barbara-remington-death/

Artist Barbara Remington, who lived in Thompson, Susquehanna County, died Thursday.

A well-traveled and prolific artist, Remington illustrated the original American paperback editions of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, which Ballantine Books published in the mid-1960s.

She lived in Northeast Pennsylvania for the last 35 years and shared her work with the region through exhibits at Scranton’s AFA Gallery, Marywood University and Springville Schoolhouse Art Studios, as reported in a story in 2018.

Remington celebrated her 90th birthday on June 23.


Barbara Remington.jpg

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26 Jan, 2020
2020-1-26 2:32:07 AM UTC
Another nice news piece about Barbara Remington.

https://www.wivb.com/news/lord-of-the- ... 90-in-susquehanna-county/
16 Feb, 2020
2020-2-16 2:47:33 PM UTC
16 Feb, 2020
2020-2-16 9:19:29 PM UTC

Trotter wrote:
New York Times article, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/15/boo ... rbara-remington-dead.html

I believe that is the first time the NY Times has had a link to TolkienGuide on it (to the Barbara Remington interview). Milestone!

Here is the official obituary that was printed in the NY Times:

1929 - 2020
Barbara Remington of Thompson, PA, prolific artist and renowned cover art illustrator of J. R. R. Tolkien novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, died January 23, 2020.

Born into a St. Paul, Minnesota family of artists and political activists, she moved to Chicago alone in her teens to pursue her art and discover city life. She later returned to Minnesota to continue her art studies and married musician Robert Tweedy from the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. The couple ventured West to the gold mining town of Central City CO where Remington worked steadily as a freelance artist / illustrator.

After ending her marriage she moved to New York's East Village becoming a fixture among it's burgeoning beatnik / hippie community, befriending such poets as Allen Ginsburg and personal mentor Lionel Ziprin. She opened up the "Boggle Shop" on Manhattan's Lower Eastside, focusing on handmade crafts and supplies (a brick-and-mortar Etsy pre-cursor), and as a former boatbuilder, volunteered restoring (and crewing on) the Petrel, the 70-foot yawl moored at South Street seaport. For 44 years she regularly opened her East 17th Street loft to itinerate artists, musicians, Union Square Farmers' Market vendors, and even members of a traveling circus in need of shelter. She frequented late night music venues and clubs such as Max's Kansas City, sketching many breakout personalities of the punk rock era.

Following two additional marriages (to the late Ed Preston, and later Brian Brughbinder), Remington settled full-time on her 25-acre remote rural property in Susquehanna Country, PA, where she was a beloved figure of Northeastern Pennsylvania's artists' and writers' community.

Her illustrated books include Boat, The Christmas Mouse, Really Not Really, The Billy Goats Gruff, and illustrations in Highlights Magazine and Cooking from a Country Farmhouse.
Remington was predeceased by her parents Heck and 'Pete' Remington, and brother Bob Remington.

Published on NYTimes.com from Jan. 26 to Jan. 27, 2020

Finally, here are two photographs of Barbara Remington, shared by her friend Sue Penedos (reproduced here with her permission)

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17 Feb, 2020
2020-2-17 7:54:30 AM UTC

Urulókë wrote:
I believe that is the first time the NY Times has had a link to TolkienGuide on it (to the Barbara Remington interview). Milestone!

I had not spotted that, a milestone indeed!!!
17 Feb, 2020
2020-2-17 8:06:24 PM UTC
I made this for myself, several years ago. I've always wondered why no one had done so before me, but perhaps they did and chose didn't share it. While always referred to as a triptych, because of the covers of the three LotR volumes, it was always obvious to me that the original 1965 Ballentine Books cover was intended to be part of the same design. I scanned the cover of a copy I own and merged it with the poster image to make this image below.

My photoshop skills are woefully inadequate to the task, as otherwise I'd have filled in the whitespace with a continuation of the scene.

Enjoy!

4991_5e4af09b6379c.jpg 1181X618 px
17 Feb, 2020
2020-2-17 8:10:00 PM UTC
  • "...the original 1965 Ballentine Books cover for The Hobbit..."
17 Feb, 2020
2020-2-17 9:04:45 PM UTC
Nicely done!

The Hobbit was painted first, and then the motifs were continued into the Lord of the Rings covers, but there are differences (it’s definitely not one painting that was cut into four books).

What you have merged looks very good, though. ?
18 Feb, 2020
2020-2-18 11:24:44 AM UTC
18 Feb, 2020
2020-2-18 2:09:11 PM UTC

Urulókë wrote:
Another article (with Trotter featured this time)

https://aleteia.org/2020/02/18/barbara ... -rings-covers-dies-at-90/

My tweet also includes a link to this thread
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