The Bodleian Library will publish Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth as a companion to the forthcoming exhibition of the same name on 1 June 2018.
The “Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth” exhibition will be held at the Weston Library, part of the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, from 1 June to 28 October 2018. It will feature an unprecedented array of Tolkien materials – manuscripts, paintings and maps – sourced from the Bodleian’s archive, Marquette University in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) and private collections.
According to The Bookseller, the companion book will be “the largest collection of material by J.R.R. Tolkien in a single volume”. It will also include “new” material, including draft manuscripts of The Hobbit, Middle-earth illustrations and paintings by Tolkien, and letters from admirers such as W.H. Auden, Joni Mitchell and Iris Murdoch.
Edited by the Bodleian’s Tolkien archivist Catherine McIlwaine, it will also feature contributions from Tolkien scholars.
Bodleian Library Publishing will publish an illustrated hardback and a limited-run collector’s edition, signed by the book’s contributors, with facsimiles of Tolkien’s paintings, manuscripts and maps.
A small-format paperback, Tolkien: Treasures, will also be released on the same day.
