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EomundDaughter
Lorien
Nov 4 2014, 7:21pm
Post #1 of 11
(764 views)
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Does anyone know if when LOTR was originally published
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it was promoted as young adult/childrens books?....so many people still refer to LOTR as written for youth and don't wish to discuss it in any depth....maybe they just have not truly read LOTR....would be interested how the public libraries list Tolkiens works as this could make a difference...
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geordie
Tol Eressea
Nov 4 2014, 8:30pm
Post #2 of 11
(530 views)
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- sorry, I can't do clickable linkies.
http://www.nytimes.com/1954/10/31/books/tolkien-fellowship.html?_r=0
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Darkstone
Immortal
Nov 4 2014, 8:50pm
Post #3 of 11
(506 views)
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The initial printing of The Fellowship of the Ring was 3000 copies with the understanding that if it failed The Two Towers and The Return of the King would not be published. Further, Tolkien was not to receive any profits from sales until the books had paid for themselves. So really, not much of an audience was assumed.
By accounts it was only published as a prestige book, first by Allen & Unwin in the UK and later by Houghton Mifflin in the US
"The Lord of the Rings” is a very great book in its own curious way and deserves to be produced somehow … I would say publish as a prestige book...
-Rayner Unwin
Rayner felt publishing the book might lose the company as much as a thousand pounds. His father replied:
…if you believe it is a work of genius, then you may lose a thousand pounds.
-Sir Stanley Unwin
Publishers in the US felt much the same way:
I think it is wonderful, but it has its drawbacks. Who will read 423 pages [The Fellowship of the Ring] about an unfinished journey undertaken by mythical creatures with confusing names? Probably no one, but I still say it is wonderful and – with my heart in my mouth –to publish!
-Anne Barrett, Senior Editor, Houghton Mifflin
So really, the book found its own audience.
******************************************
I met a Balrog on the stair.
He had some wings that weren't there.
They weren't there again today.
I wish he would just fly away.
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Elizabeth
Half-elven
Nov 4 2014, 9:09pm
Post #4 of 11
(494 views)
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The Hero is a Hobbit (reviewer none other than W. H. Auden).
Links are easy. I use the "basic editor" with the "Markup and HTML" Post Style. Below the editing box is a series of buttons:
* Click on 'url' and you get url in brackets.
* Backspace to erase the right bracket ], and paste your link.
* Type ]
* Type whatever text you want to appear on the link (The Hero...).
* Click the url button again (which now says /url).
Voila!
If you forget, there's a link called "Get Markup Help" at the top of the screen. If you click it and scroll down to the bottom you'll see examples of links done this way.
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Darkstone
Immortal
Nov 4 2014, 9:21pm
Post #5 of 11
(479 views)
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It is essentially a children's book - a children's book which has somehow got out of hand...
http://www.jrrvf.com/...ques/The_Nation.html
******************************************
I met a Balrog on the stair.
He had some wings that weren't there.
They weren't there again today.
I wish he would just fly away.
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geordie
Tol Eressea
Nov 4 2014, 10:31pm
Post #6 of 11
(454 views)
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Thanks very much, Elizabeth //
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EomundDaughter
Lorien
Nov 5 2014, 11:29am
Post #7 of 11
(473 views)
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Guess there will always be those that never read
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Tolkien or any "fantasy" author for whatever reason.....luckily his fans have grown in all generations...
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noWizardme
Half-elven
Nov 21 2014, 10:34am
Post #8 of 11
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Hats off to Tolkien s Publisher!
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The Hobbit being a success, they ask for more: but after many years, They finally get the huge, different, LOTR. Or actually they nearly don't get it. From 1949 to 1852, Tolkien is adamant that LOTR has to be published accompanied by The Silmarillion. When even Unwin wouldn't agree, he started negotiating with Collins. No luck there's either: and it's not hard to see why. It was utterly unrealistic to thinkthere'd be an audience for the Silm. Until LOTR had created one. LOTR itself was a risky enough proposition in cash-strapped, paper-rationed, post-War Britain. And besides: what did Tolkien have to hand to the editor if Unwin or Collins had decided to add the Silm.? Presumably far from anything complete: later there was a market for the Silm. and it could have been published as soon as JRRT could finish it. But that wasn't something he was able to do in the rest of his lifetime.
I wonder how close LOTR came to being that unpublished second book?
~~~~~~
"nowimë I am in the West, Furincurunir to the Dwarves (or at least, to their best friend) and by other names in other lands. Mostly they just say 'Oh no it's him - look busy!' "
Or "Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"
This year LOTR turns 60. The following image is my LOTR 60th anniversary party footer! You can get yours here: http://newboards.theonering.net/...i?post=762154#762154
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squire
Half-elven
Nov 21 2014, 12:48pm
Post #9 of 11
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Unwin really, really wanted to publish LotR
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As you say, we have the publisher to thank for LotR's appearance under such unlikely circumstances, or rather the publisher's son.
As soon as Tolkien realized the Sil was just not ready for prime time - being neither complete nor even near complete (Tale of Gondolin, anyone? Earendil?) - he gratefully and even almost humbly returned to Sir Stanley Unwin's door and accepted the inevitable. The publisher asked his son, the same young man who as a boy had declared The Hobbit a good read for young adults, to read the massive typescript of The Lord of the Rings. Rayner told his father that it was a work of genius that might well cause the firm to lose a thousand pounds. Sir Stanley replied, according to the tale, "If you think this to be a work of genius, then you may lose a thousand pounds."
So how close did we come to not seeing LotR? As close as the chance that Rayner Unwin might have been, say, hit by a bus in 1949.
squire online:
RR Discussions: The Valaquenta, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, and Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
Lights! Action! Discuss on the Movie board!: 'A Journey in the Dark'. and 'Designing The Two Towers'.
Footeramas: The 3rd & 4th TORn Reading Room LotR Discussion and NOW the 1st BotR Discussion too! and "Tolkien would have LOVED it!"
squiretalk introduces the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: A Reader's Diary
 = Forum has no new posts. Forum needs no new posts.
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noWizardme
Half-elven
Nov 21 2014, 1:09pm
Post #10 of 11
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A thousand pounds...not trivial in 1952
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£1,000 In 1952 is the equivalent to £27,420 today, or about forty-two thousand US dollars. (Just did that on an inflation calculator). UnwinJr. Had just started in the family firm on a salary of £35/ week http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayner_Unwin
So not an inconsiderable investment to risk, though I expect it made a good profit for them in the end!
~~~~~~
"nowimë I am in the West, Furincurunir to the Dwarves (or at least, to their best friend) and by other names in other lands. Mostly they just say 'Oh no it's him - look busy!' "
Or "Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"
This year LOTR turns 60. The following image is my LOTR 60th anniversary party footer! You can get yours here: http://newboards.theonering.net/...i?post=762154#762154
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swordwhale
Tol Eressea
Dec 3 2014, 3:55am
Post #11 of 11
(385 views)
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not able to do in the rest of his lifetime....
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...now I feel better about my own unfinished tales........
We tend to forget one of the greatest tales of the 20th century left a lot of loose ends and unfinished bits.
"Judge me by my size, would you?" Max the Hobbit Husky.
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