So, I was sorry to get an e-mail a few days ago that Jeffrey Norton Publishers of Guilford, Conn. are going out of business on February 10th (i.e., a week from yesterday). While they did a lot of learn-to-speak-a-foreign-language tapes (including an interesting-looking series on Native American languages), I became aware of them because they were the North American distributors of the cassette containing J. R. R. Tolkien's 1964/65 interview with Denys Gueroult for Radio BBC -- the best single interview we have of Tolkien: not just by far the longest but also the one for which his interviewer did the most preparation and asked not just intelligent questions but follow-ups. As an added bonus, the flip side was an interview with the highly opinionated but occasionally insightful poet Basil Bunting, whose works I'd never even heard of before buying this tape.
So, I don't know if the Tolkien/Bunting cassette is among the items still available -- it was a few years ago when I wrote to them to order a back-up copy, just in case mine ever wore out -- but if you're interested in finding out you'd better act now.
--John R.
8 comments:
The Tolkien interview didn't come up on any searches of their inventory, and it didn't appear to be in their recent brochures. Too bad. At 65% off, I would definitely have bought one!
I'm trying to find out how long the original interview was and whether an unedited version exists. I have two different copies, both edited of about 10-11 minute duration. Is the cassette tape version longer than this and do you think it is edited?
Hopefully the complete interview will be on the forthcoming "On Tolkien" audio book.
I haven't listened to that interview in a long time, but I recall that the tape was considerably longer than 10-11 minutes.
Yes, the tape I have is 27 minutes and 40 seconds long. The full interview was obviously longer, since it starts with Tolkien responding to a question.
Ardamir: the ON TOLKIEN book might be made available as an audiobook, but I suspect it won't include all the original recordings -- gathering all the permissions for that wd be quite a feat.
In any case, it's by far the single best interview of Tolkien's we have, and a major primary source; I place it behind only the Foreword to the second edition of LotR and the Waldman letter in importance.
--John R.
UPDATE:
I checked, and it is available on cd from Tolkienwinkle (The Tolkien Shop) for about eighteen euros, complete with the Basil Bunting. If you following this link --
http://www.tolkienshop.com/contents/en-uk/d42.html
--then scroll down; it's the fourth item from the bottom.
By the way, another interview with Tolkien (this one by Daphne Castell) has recently been posted online at the 'Festival in the Shire' site.
--JDR
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