Forthcoming Books

Just been taking stock at how many interesting books on Tolkien, or related to Tolkien studies, are coming out this year. We've already had THE COMPANY THEY KEEP by Diana Pavlac Glyer with David Bratman, the most important new book on The Inklings since Carpenter. Thanks to the newest issue of BEYOND BREE, I've just learned of ROOTS AND BRANCHES, a Walking Tree Press collection of more than twenty essays and speeches by Tom Shippey, which I of course ordered the next day. From Jessica Yates I learned that Shippey's other new book, a major study that has been in the works for a while, is now out: THE SHADOW-WALKERS: JACOB GRIMM'S MYTHOLOGY OF THE MONSTROUS, which revisits Grimm's seminal work TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY (which Tolkien seems to have dipped into for inspiration repeatedly). Finally, from Jason Fisher's new blog I found out about Dirk Vander Ploeg's QUEST FOR MIDDLE-EARTH, which tries to give Tolkien's Middle-earth a Van Daniken treatment. I suspect Ploeg might turn out to be the same person who published a rather strange piece I came across a while back in which he claimed to be of either elven or Numenorean descent (I forget which); we'll see.

And of course these, all out now, come in addition to two much-anticipated volumes coming in October: The Fleiger-Anderson edition TOLKIEN ON FAIRY-STORIES, which comes out in the U.K. on October 1st, and the Anderson-Burns collection of Tolkien's interviews ON TOLKIEN: INTERVIEWS, REMINISCENCES, and Other Essays, which is due out over here on October 21st.

And finally, thanks to Diana Pavlac Glyer for letting me know that the U.S. edition of my book is finally listed as orderable on amazon.com, with a release date of September 21st. It'll be available both as two individual volumes and in a boxed set containing both volumes of my book along with the new seventieth anniversary HOBBIT.


--JDR