I have a copy and am planning to reach out. Anyone else want to add feedback here that I can add to the discussion?
onthetrail wrote: I found the John Howe book very poor overall, especially when judged by its write up.
A Middle-earth Traveller presents a walking tour of Tolkien's Middle-earth, visiting not only places central to his stories, but also those just over the hill or beyond the horizon.
On that quote alone it falls short of its aims and trying to make it a mix of his work on the movies made the effort messy.
Maybe I was just assuming, but I always thought this was going to be a publication of Mr. Howe's sketches for the movies, without any additional/new material. Of course many of his sketches did not make it into the final film, so in that regard there would be some new surprises.
Sketches that have an `on-the-spot' feel to them are interwoven with the artist's observations gleaned from Tolkien's books as he paints pictures with his words as well as his pencil.
I missed the `on-the-spot' for all the art that looked like a behind the sketches of Peter Jackson's movies.
I thought it was a poor effort at a 'walking tour'.
From the Postscript in John's own words (p. 191): "We would often wait on Peter's good graces, tucked away drawing in a corner of a sound stage." He then goes on with a humorous story of shopping for the quietest pencils as the sound of sketching was audible on quiet sets. Many of the sketches in this book are those "on the set, on the spot" sketches that John had to do to keep up with the director's vision.
There are sketches (and at least one painting) from The Silmarillion here that I quite liked, and subjects not in the film like Old Man Willow and the barrow wight.
As an art book (ignoring textual issues), I do really like this book for the wide spectrum of John Howe art I haven't seen before, and he is a favorite of mine in the world of Tolkien illustration.
I imagine I will pick up a used copy at some point, but I won't buy this one new. Sloppy work should not be rewarded (and the text would annoy me immensely).
It had a release date of 18 March, but there's still no product image and it seems to have immediately gone out of stock on reaching the publication date. There's no sign of a new edition on the HC website, so I'm left wondering whether this product really exists at all. Does anyone know any more about it?
There are phantom dates in the “system”. This book is still being worked on by Doug, and will be officially announced closer to when it will be published.
"Something Has Gone Crack": New Perspectives on J.R.R.Tolkien in the Great War
Publication Date: 23rd September 2019
We are pleased to announce our latest publication "Something Has Gone Crack": New Perspectives on J.R.R.Tolkien in the Great War , edited by Janet Brennan Croft & Annika Röttinger.
"Something has gone crack," Tolkien wrote about the first death among his tight-knit fellowship of friends in 1916, and the impact of the war haunted his writing for the rest of his life. In Tolkien's body of work, the Great War serves as a source of imagery, motifs, and examples of military operations and strategy; of central themes about conflict, comradeship, duty, and the destruction of the environment; and of personal trauma which he worked out in meaningful symbolic form throughout his life.
Edited by Huan68 on 2022-12-16 1:15:54 PM UTC Edited by Huan68 on 2022-12-16 1:16:27 PM UTC
2022-12-16 1:04:14 PM UTC
I bought this set a couple of weeks or so back. It wasn’t something I was planning but I do like a box! It isn’t the Waterstones red edged set of titles. The Hobbit is the 2020 edition, impression 70. The LotR set says 2020 edition, 35th impressions. Strange how the Fellowship says 2011 edition, however. Must be a misprint? As you can see from the eBay listing above and my post, the edges in certain places seem bumped. Mine was in cellophane also, but as that was the only one in the shop I bought it.
The style of these seems to be a 'new' collection being published, different than the 'deluxe slipcases' that they've been doing since '04.
So if that's the case, my question is: Does anyone know if there is or will be a version of The Hobbit that goes with these other illustrated 'special' editions?
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