The History of Middle-earth: Boxes III & IV Announced
I may be a bit late to the game (meant to do this post a few days ago) though the info for The History of Middle-earth: Boxed Sets III & IV have recently come out, seemingly at the same time.
Arriving June 6 (that's the scheduled date as of this post) with an ISBN of 9780008669294, is Box III.
Box III contains: The Return of the the Shadow, The Treason of Isengard, The War of the Ring and (spoiler alert! Kidding) Sauron Defeated. All of those are immediately associated with Tolkien writing The Lord of the Rings.
Arriving on August 15 (again, that date is as of this post) with an ISBN of 9780008669393, is Boxed Set IV. It contains Morgoth's Ring, The War of the Jewels, The Peoples of Middle-earth and the very handy Index to the entire series.
Once History of Middle-earth: Box IV is out, I'll do a post with all their ISBNs collected into one post, for convenience/reference purposes. It should be easy enough to find outside of this blog, though that post will be intended as a 'hey, they're all out now!' Some people may wish to wait until they're all out and exist before buying any of them.
It is great that HarperCollins has re-issued them all in hardback, and in individual books, too. These sets were done in celebration of Christopher Tolkien's centenary. He has spent most of his life - especially the later years - caretaking, preserving and publishing his father's texts. With the exception of things like forewords/prefaces, introductions, notes, commentaries or appendices, all the main-body text is by his father. Christopher essentially made all the various texts into books [holds up physical object.]
What else may come this year to honor or celebrate Christopher Tolkien? The History of Middle-earth boxed sets are the primary focus. The rest of this paragraph will delver briefly into speculation for what I could see existing (bulleted for readability):
~ 'The Complete History of Middle-earth' reissued with different cover art. Sure, we already have The History of Middle-earth books re-issued in hardback, the individual editions, though I'm referring to the 3-part omnibus ones.....the 3 big books that collect the 12 books. Part 1 contains The Book of Lost Tales (Part 1 and 2), The Lays of Beleriand, The Shaping of Middle-earth and The Lost Road. The cover art for that could be the John Howe artwork that's used for the cover of The Book of Lost Tales: Part 1. Part 2 contains The Return of the Shadow, The Treason of Isengard, The War of the Ring and Sauron Defeated. The cover art for that could be the John Howe artwork that was used for the cover of The Return of the Shadow. Lastly, for Part 3, which contains Morgoth's Ring, The War of the Jewels and The Peoples of Middle-earth. The cover art for that could the John Howe artwork that was used for the cover of Morgoth's Ring. These would use the current ISBNs, only the dustjacket changing, much like what was done recently with The History of The Hobbit. For the boxed set that contains all 3 parts, the 3 panels could be the imagery that was used for all 3 parts. I mention this, due to The History of The Hobbit re-issue existing, and to offer a bit more selection to consumers.
~ 'The Great Tales of Middle-earth' Boxed Set. Back in 2019, an early/false/pre-emptive listing came out from HarperCollins. This boxed set (with artwork by Alan Lee: the 3 panels were the contained books' covers) would've contained The Children of Hurin, Beren and Luthien and The Fall of Gondolin. With the 4 History of Middle-earth boxed sets 'done' with by this point, they may still choose to put this set out. I wouldn't be surprised one way or the other. It could be the current existing hardbacks, or new ones. The History of Middle-earth individual hardbacks had reversible dustjackets: they could do that again with these if they wanted to. The 'alternate' side or imagery could be the emblems (designed by Alan Lee) that appear on the covers of the deluxe editions, large-print editions, and the newer paperbacks.
That's it in terms of other ideas/products I have that I could see HarperCollins implementing.
Two other works not to be ignored that can be seen as 'companions' (meaning 'fellows' : not 'companion' in the sense of a 'guide.') are The History of The Hobbit and The Nature of Middle-earth. These two were not edited by Christopher, however, he has given them his own personal blessing and go-ahead. The editors of those two books worked closely with Christopher throughout their various stages.
Lastly, while this is technically 'duplicated content', the books The Children of Hurin, Beren and Luthien, The Fall of Gondolin and The Fall of Numenor are also worth a look and your attention.
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