Barbara Remington from Festival Art and Books (2 results)

No Binding. Condition: Very Good. Barbara Remington (illustrator). First Edition. Used as a set of three posters to promote the 1965 official release of the First Ballantine paperbacks of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. This was in response to the illegal Ace papebacks. See my listing for the original artwork for the full story. This is just the map poster. The other two posters, (per the photo and not included), were the Banner and Come to Middle-earth. 3 ft high x 2 ft feet wide. Colours true, minor wear and tear to the edges. Some ripling to the paper from being rolled. However, this will flatten out when dry mounted and framed which we highly recommend. The inks were not colour fast and will fade if not mounted behind UV glass/plastic. We suggest true-view plastic.

Seller Inventory # 002422

No Binding. Condition: Fine. No Jacket. Barbara Remington (illustrator). First Edition. Betty Ballantine and now Barbara Remington have passed away making this a true historic piece. It was the cult status Tolkien first achieved in America on sale of millions of paperbacks, not in Britain, that would make him a household name by the late 60's. The Hobbit for example was not produced in paper inUK until 1961, Until 1966 his books only sold a few thousand copies a year, hardly a best seller. In fact the Tolkien society fan club first started in America, some five years before. Note, we were recently asked: we own the piece and as the seller, we left the letter addressed anonymously for the next buyer rather than to us. We are pleased to offer for sale, perhaps the most important original Tolkien related art piece. It is truly deserving as a museum piece representing a key turning point in the history of Professor Tolkien popularity. While Tolkien 's own art was used only in the Hobbit This is the original concept art submitted to Mrs Betty Ballantine for the 1965 Ballantine Books first paperbacks of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books in America. It was also used for the promotional posters and banners for what was to become very popular editions. It was produced by artist Barbara Remington as a concept proof before the final colour version was approved. The medium is gouache on card, glued on illustration board with the original stock sticker on the reverse, It comes with a personal COA letter produced on my request . This iconic illustration also has a slightly infamous reputation as Tolkien did not like it initially, but this does not alter its importance to Tolkien lore as we know it today. In 1965 Ace Paperbacks in America released unauthorised editions of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. This was due to a loophole in US copyright. The rush was then on for Houghton Mifflin, Tolkien' s US publisher in collaboration with Ballantine books to release authorised paperbacks of both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. To close he copyright loophole, a new version of the LotR text was needed, in which Professor Tolkien set out to make changes eventually for the 1966 2nd edition. As was often the case, these revisions were quite delayed, forcing Ballantine Books to rush out a new edition of the Hobbit and using Barbara Remington artwork before she had actually read the books. Thus some of the strange figures in the artwork are not in the book. There was even a lion on the cover of the Hobbit PB until it was airbrushed out. During an interview with N Marion Hage and Andwerve, Barbara said- "I worked for Ballantine, and as a practice, always read the books before doing the artwork. I didn' t have this luxury with the Tolkien Books, Ballantine was in a hurry to get these books out right away. When they commissioned me to do the artwork, I didn 't have the chance to see either book, though I tried to get a copy through my friends. So I didn't know what they were about. I tried finding people that had read them, but the books were not readily available in the states, and so I had sketchy information at best." (As noted above, Barbara did make sketches relative to the books, afterwards, but she couldn' t get the publishers to see the point, something which is very regretful). Professor Tolkien was not impressed with the new Hobbit book cover. In a letter to Rayner Unwin, 12 September 1965, Tolkien wrote: I wrote expressing(with moderation) my dislike of the cover for. Please ask for a complete set of photos! Feel free to ask questions about collecting Tolkien books, we are here. Signed by Illustrator(s).

Seller Inventory # 01242