2025 Tolkien Books: A Speculative Look Ahead

 

It's that time of year again to look & think ahead of what the next calendar year has in store for Tolkien books! This is '....hmm, what might come out??' 

HARDBACKS

The Lord of the Rings Author Illustrated 3-Part Boxed Set (speculation).

This is the 'last chance' for this to happen in the immediate future (the next opportunity would be the 75th Anniversary). I'm unsure how realistic it is, given the amount of various hardback editions of The Lord of the Rings currently in print. What makes me think that this could happen, was for the 50th Anniversary Editions, the releases went as such: 1-book hardback, 1-book deluxe slipcased edition, and 3-book boxed set (well, '4' actually - the 4th book was the Companion by Hammond & Scull).

As it currently stands with the Author-Illustrated editions of The Lord of the Rings; if we follow this pattern, then we're 'missing' the 3-book boxed set. As discussed in posts past, how that set could look could by a 'hybrid' of the the 60th Anniversary boxed set, and the 1-book hardback (non-deluxe, standard edition).

If this edition is not published by 2026, then I don't believe it will come. It would be neat for it to exist, though I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't. 

DELUXE/SLIPCASED EDITIONS

At the moment, there's nothing I can think of that could/would go into the deluxe slipcased format - unless a new (or 'new') Tolkien book comes out, it may also go into that style. 

PAPERBACKS

There are a few paperbacks likely on the horizon. 

The Battle of Maldon (speculation)

Well, this title has to come to paperback sometime; and 2025, possibly 2026 is likely, as it didn't come out in that format in 2024. 

Letters From Father Christmas (Tolkien Signature Paperback) (speculation)

HarperCollins is in the process of reissuing a vast number of Tolkien paperbacks into a new style, 'The Tolkien Signature Collection.' So far, roughly 90% of the various paperbacks have been released into this style. There's the odd title here and there yet to come to that format. Worthy of note, though, is Letters From Father Christmas.

I can kind of picture how it could look in my head: it would feature the image above (which has adorned the front covers in shape or form of various editions over recent years) and the book's colour would be red. HarperCollins could use a new ISBN for it, or merely use the one of the previous paperback edition: 9780007280490.

This is also worthy of mention, due to the fact that there currently isn't a paperback edition of Letters From Father Christmas in print. Various editions of Letters From Father Christmas typically appear October - November. 

Likely placement: 'Collection: IX'. 

The Fall of Numenor (Tolkien Signature Paperback) (speculation)

As we will see with newer print runs of The Road to Middle-earth and The Nature of Middle-earth, we can - at some point - expect The Fall of Numenor to make it into The Tolkien Signature Paperback Collection at some point. Will it be 2025 sometime? Or 2026? We'll have to see how HarperCollins handles things. I'm expecting the current paperback ISBN to be used for the new cover, and the cover to be the emblem by Alan Lee, which was used for the slipcased deluxe edition, and the large print edition. This was the case for some similar titles (The Children of Hurin, Beren and Luthien and The Fall of Gondolin). 

Likely placement: 'Collection: VI.' 

Speculation: Other Titles in the Tolkien Signature Paperback Collection:
(Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, The Fall of Arthur, Beowulf, The Story of Kullervo, The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, The Monsters and the Critics, The History of The Hobbit (2-books or A Brief History of The Hobbit))

Likely placement: 

'Collection: X' for Sir Gawain - Beowulf
'Collection: VII' for History of The Hobbit
'Collection: IX' for The Monsters and the Critics 
'Collection: XI' for The Story of Kullervo and The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun 

It's up to HarperCollins to decide which titles will be arriving in this new, unifying paperback format. The ones mentioned are certainly candidates, either way of receiving new ISBNs, or by having future print runs use the new covers. 

So we'll have to see what the publisher has in store for us throughout the coming calendar! It's always fun to look ahead and think at the start of a new year, what that year will bring. I'll of course keep you posted along the way. 

Note: 'Collection: _' refers to the sorting of Tolkien's books that I'm doing found here: https://insurrbution.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-tolkien-signature-paperback.html