Tuesday 4 December 2007

Shire delight

Mr Gnome strikes a Tolkienesque pose beside one of his HB's most treasured volumes.

The HB recalls: 'I bought this with my pocket money at a school book event in the spring of 1962.'

(The enterprising bookseller was also briskly shifting under-the-counter copies of Lady Chatterly to the older boys.)

'Puffin had the rights for a relatively brief time and I believe this paperback edition is something of a rarity. The cover is by Pauline Baynes, the illustrator of the Narnia books.

'Discovering The Hobbit was one of those very special childhood moments.

'I felt that the author had written the book entirely for me.

'I found myself reading slowly, not wanting the story to end.... '

2 comments:

Brett Jordan said...

Actually, Mr Tolkien wrote it for me :-)

For a nice gallery of Hobbit covers

http://bookloaf.net/lotrscrapbook/gallery/bookcovers/index.htm

RHK said...

Thank you!

Gratifying that the Puffin cover isn't in the collection!

: - )