So, pulling my books off the shelf yesterday to check something before hitting send on my most recent post, I noticed the blurb slipped just below the author's name on the front cover of this one. For those who can't see the small type, here's what it says:
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
ALAN GARNER
A fantastic novel in the Tolkien tradition
"A prime favorite of mine."
--ANDRE NORTON
It's the ' in the Tolkien tradition' part that's interesting. This book (a 1960 Ace paperback) must have been among the first, if not the first, to try to sell a fantasy novel by claiming on the cover that it was like Tolkien or the next Tolkien or that if you liked Tolkien, you'll love . . .
I wonder how many books have borne some version of that line over the years. Dozens? A hundred? More?
But to see if so early -- for a book published in 1954-56 to already be used as a milestone/marker in 1960 strikes me as extraordinary, and once again drives home the point that there's only one Tolkien, and his impact was early, massive, and enduring.
--John R.
--current reading: KA by John Crowley
3 comments:
ISFDB lists this as the 1966 edition (https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?7707). 1960 is the year of the Collins hardcover.
Of possible interest:
https://tolkienandfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/07/pre-1970-paperbacks-with-comparisons-to.html
https://tolkienandfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/11/dale-nelsons-summation-on-tolkien-in.html
Dale Nelson
Dear Mykhailo
Thanks for the corrective. This makes things more interesting. So much so that I've decided to move the discussion out of Comments and into a follow-up post of its own.
--John R.
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