BLP's Tolkien tome lures overseas interest

Bodleian Library Publishing (BLP) will release the largest collection of material by J R R Tolkien in a single volume as a companion to an upcoming exhibition.

Tolkien: Maker of Middle Earth launches on 1st June 2018, to coincide with an exhibition of the same name at the Oxford University library.

The exhibition will be the largest exhibition of Tolkien materials, manuscripts, and paintings and maps. It will source pieces from the Bodleian’s archive, Marquette University in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) and private collections.

BLP 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 be released on the same date. Coeditions will be sold through the Edwards Fuglewicz Literary Agency.

BLP head of publishing Samuel Fanous said: “Interest has been strong and we expect to see good coedition sales.”