FARMER GILES OF HAM *Finally* On eBook!

 

This is a day I've long anticipated. 

Farmer Giles of Ham has finally arrived on eBook. That statement has a few meanings to me. 

First, the fact that it actually exists as an eBook. 

Secondly - and this is the big one for me - is that this release was delayed a few times. I'd have to dig through my e-mails (correspondence with HarperCollins) to find out the past release dates, or how many times, though I believe it was initially supposed to come out Fall 2023. Then, it was delayed to Winter 2024, then Spring 2024, and now, finally it's out. 

You may be wondering 'ok, it got delayed a few times. That's unfortunate, but now it's finally out. But why is that a big deal?' I'll go into it. 

Back in 2008, HarperCollins re-issued Tales From the Perilous Realm and integrated Roverandom into it. It featured 'On Fairy-Stories' as an appendix (great placement) and some words from Alan Lee as well as Tom Shippey. The artwork was done by Alan Lee for the stories contained within.

Pauline Baynes did the artwork originally for the pretty much all the stories that Tales From the Perilous Realm contained, prior to Roverandom's integration (italics are not used, as we are not discussing the book published on its own, but rather that title as an item listed on the table of contents). The stories contained within were them at their 'basic' form. The book was published in hardback and deluxe edition tiers, and then paperback.  

Then, in 2014, The Tolkien Treasury boxed set came out. This was a hardback boxed set that featured pocket editions of the The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, Farmer Giles of Ham, Roverandom an Smith of Wootton Major. These pocket editions featured expanded versions of most of the stories, by way of offering multiple versions, earlier drafts, appendices, etc. These were edited and assembled by Hammond  & Scull, and Verlyn Flieger (Flieger did Smith of Wootton Major). These editions also featured artwork by Pauline Baynes, and Tolkien himself (Tolkien did the art for Roverandom). This also matched, in size, The Middle-earth Treasury, which contained pocket editions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in 3 parts. 

Which brings me to this: I already own Tales From the Perilous Realm, physically. I have the standard tier hardback edition. So I own another variation of this content - to a degree. Because I already own it physically, I opted to get eBook editions of the editions that came in the Tolkien Treasury boxed set. This way, I could own and see Baynes' artwork, as well as the additional content that's not present in hardback edition of Tales From the Perilous Realm. 

Farmer Giles of Ham was the missing piece, as the other three titles existed as eBook - but not that one. So it feels great to own eBook editions of The Tolkien Treasury editions.

I took this approach, because as much as I enjoy physical books, I already owned a majority of this content. I was interested to get the content not offered in my edition of Tales From the Perilous Realm, but I didn't want to sacrifice shelf space to do it. Also, as much as a I enjoy getting books (and especially Tolkien books) having these digitally was more practical for me. I own a few Tolkien titles digitally - mostly due to personal preference. It was just the wait for Farmer Giles that's been painful! 

I'd like to add that if anyone goes the eBook route for the eBook editions of The Tolkien Treasury, that I also suggest adding Tree and Leaf into the mix. 

I'll end this post by mentioning something possibly important. 

Recently, editions of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Farmer Giles of Ham are being released into 'The Tolkien Signature Paperback Collection.' These editions are essentially paperback reprints of their Tolkien Treasury form. However, The Tolkien Treasury is a set of four books: as of this writing, we're missing two. Roverandom and Smith of Wootton Major have yet to appear in this format. Just a word of caution if anyone is going for a paperback edition 'tier' of those releases. A reminder that I'll update my 'Master Listing' post accordingly, as well when future titles to 'The Tolkien Signature Paperback Collection' are announced.