Wish List for More Centenary Boxed Sets
26 Dec, 2025
2025-12-26 5:45:44 PM UTC
2025-12-26 5:45:44 PM UTC
With the recent announcement of the Myths and Legends boxed set # 2 my mind is thinking of what other hardcover reissue boxed sets I'd love to see.
> Beowulf and the Critics (ed. by Michael D.C. Drout)
> Tolkien On Fairy-stories (ed. by Verlyn Flieger & Douglas A. Anderson)
> A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages (ed. by Dimitra Fimi & Andrew Higgins)
This one feels like a no-brainer after the M&L boxed sets 1 & 2. However the biggest hurdle would seem to be in securing the right's to Drout's volume.
This one again feels like a no-brainer, and frankly necessary, to me.
> Letters from Father Christmas
> The Bovadium Fragments
> Tree & Leaf, together with “Mythopoeia” and “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth”
> Bilbo's Last Song
This one is a bit more esoteric, but hey, if we're going all-out, let's go!
Then, just for funsies:
> J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century - by Tom Shippey
> The Road to Middle-earth - by Tom Shippey
> Tolkien and the Great War - by John Garth
What am I missing from your wish lists?
- The Monsters and the Critics Boxed Set [echoing Tuor son of Huor here]
> Beowulf and the Critics (ed. by Michael D.C. Drout)
> Tolkien On Fairy-stories (ed. by Verlyn Flieger & Douglas A. Anderson)
> A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages (ed. by Dimitra Fimi & Andrew Higgins)
This one feels like a no-brainer after the M&L boxed sets 1 & 2. However the biggest hurdle would seem to be in securing the right's to Drout's volume.
- Tolkien Treasury Boxed Set
This one again feels like a no-brainer, and frankly necessary, to me.
- More Tolkien Treasures Boxed Set
> Letters from Father Christmas
> The Bovadium Fragments
> Tree & Leaf, together with “Mythopoeia” and “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth”
> Bilbo's Last Song
This one is a bit more esoteric, but hey, if we're going all-out, let's go!
Then, just for funsies:
- Tolkien Scholar Boxed Set
> J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century - by Tom Shippey
> The Road to Middle-earth - by Tom Shippey
> Tolkien and the Great War - by John Garth
What am I missing from your wish lists?
Yes, I think all of PxChris's suggestions would make for great box sets. The Tolkien Treasures set seems like a no-brainer to me. HarperCollins has all the rights - those books have already been put in a box set and are all being made into signature paperbacks. Simply making them hardbacks of the same size and putting in a box decorated with the Pauline Baynes artwork seems like it would be printing money for them.
And turning those same books into slipcase deluxe editions seems like it would be feasible too (plus Aotrou/Itroun). Maldon, Arthur, and Kullervo are all slim volumes so that can't be the reason to not do them. And if Easton Press can do an expanded edition of Tom Bombadil and a leatherbound edition of Aotrou & Itroun, I don't see why HarperCollins can't do a slipcased edition of them too. Clearly the set is continuing with Carpenter's biography and Letters, and Carpenter's biography is far less worthy of a slipcased edition than any of the Tolkien Treasury stories.
I hadn't thought to include Drout's book into a Tolkien scholarship box, but if they could get the rights to that it would be great. The format would pair well with OFS and ASV. Another set that would be nice but which they probably don't have the rights to would be the Tolkien-Gordon collaborations: Sir Gawain, Pearl, Intro to Old Norse, Battle of Maldon, and Seafarer. Tolkien's name is technically only on the first one so I guess this will probably never happen, but maybe I will have to make a custom slipcase for my set.
Also, I'd love a box set to match the "Collected Poetry" set which would be the "Collected Essays and Lectures of J.R.R. Tolkien" and which would publish known but still unpublished lectures, essays, and draft pieces in addition to collecting his various essays all in one place. I'm guessing Ulsterior Motive might have to wait to be published until after Douglas Gresham passes, but such a set would also require a ton of hard work from an editor that's knowledgeable, skilled, and friendly with the estate, along the lines of Findegil or Aelfwine, who did wonderful editorial jobs with Poems and Nature. Here's hoping though!
And turning those same books into slipcase deluxe editions seems like it would be feasible too (plus Aotrou/Itroun). Maldon, Arthur, and Kullervo are all slim volumes so that can't be the reason to not do them. And if Easton Press can do an expanded edition of Tom Bombadil and a leatherbound edition of Aotrou & Itroun, I don't see why HarperCollins can't do a slipcased edition of them too. Clearly the set is continuing with Carpenter's biography and Letters, and Carpenter's biography is far less worthy of a slipcased edition than any of the Tolkien Treasury stories.
I hadn't thought to include Drout's book into a Tolkien scholarship box, but if they could get the rights to that it would be great. The format would pair well with OFS and ASV. Another set that would be nice but which they probably don't have the rights to would be the Tolkien-Gordon collaborations: Sir Gawain, Pearl, Intro to Old Norse, Battle of Maldon, and Seafarer. Tolkien's name is technically only on the first one so I guess this will probably never happen, but maybe I will have to make a custom slipcase for my set.
Also, I'd love a box set to match the "Collected Poetry" set which would be the "Collected Essays and Lectures of J.R.R. Tolkien" and which would publish known but still unpublished lectures, essays, and draft pieces in addition to collecting his various essays all in one place. I'm guessing Ulsterior Motive might have to wait to be published until after Douglas Gresham passes, but such a set would also require a ton of hard work from an editor that's knowledgeable, skilled, and friendly with the estate, along the lines of Findegil or Aelfwine, who did wonderful editorial jobs with Poems and Nature. Here's hoping though!
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