Wishful Thinking: The History of Middle-earth 40th Anniversary Editions

 

This October marks 40th years since The History of Middle-earth book series began with The Book of Lost Tales: Part 1.

To celebrate, I have an idea for the publisher, HarperCollins, to do. Please note that the following is speculation only. HarperCollins, if you're reading, please do ahead with these if it's in the cards to begin with. 

Each of the 13 (12 + the Index) books will get published as 13 individual hardbacks. These hardbacks would feature the same imagery by John Howe (some of which appears in this post) that adorns the current paperback counterparts. The dustjacket would be arranged and designed in such a manner to match the latest Tolkien hardbacks, such as The Fall of Numenor and The Nature of Middle-earth. Much like The Nature of Middle-earth, there won't be any artwork inside - the only imagery would be what's currently available inside the 12 books.

Each of these hardbacks would be available on their own, and there would be 3 boxed sets (of the same editions). These boxed sets would mirror the 3-part omnibus editions, and would be as follows:

BOXED SET I:



The Book of Lost Tales: Part 1
The Book of Lost Tales: Part 2
The Lays of Beleriand
The Shaping of Middle-earth
The Lost Road and Other Writings

BOXED SET II:



The Return of the Shadow
The Treason of Isengard
The War of the Ring
Sauron Defeated (personally, I prefer the NAME 'The End of the Third Age'. Less spoiler-y, even if its very likely one has read The Lord of the Rings beforehand. Still, a title shouldn't spoil.).

BOXED SET III:



Morgoth's Ring
The War of the Jewels
The Peoples of Middle-earth
Index

There could also be the higher-tied slipcased editions of all 13 (and possibly in boxed sets like above). The slipcased editions would (actually) match the 2004 onwards line-up (the 3-part slipcased editions w/out dustjackets don't quite). As for the motifs, I'm not sure. It could just be the 'JRRT' on all 13. For the artwork though, because of the style of the format itself, the images used for the paperback and hardback covers could appear as frontispieces (fold-out, where necessary to the size of the image itself).

It'll be tricky to see if this happens. HarperCollins does offer on-demand facsimile editions of the whole set, and The History of Middle-earth series is as niche as you can get when it comes to Tolkien. However, quite a few fans have been asking for this.

It would be neat to see it come to fruition.