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General Collecting
Sources and References
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 The Tolkien
Society. Anyone interested in Tolkien should join the Tolkien
Society. The society publishes Amon Hen, a newsletter that includes
numerous articles and announcements of interest to the Tolkien collector.
They also offer for sale a multitude of Tolkien items that are only
available in England. They make payment easy by taking credit cards.
Link to their site and sign up for membership. |
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Daerons Books. These folks
are a great source for books and collectibles. They also carry items
related to the works of all the Inklings. They also take credit cards.
Through the years, I have purchased numerous items from them. They
are the best at finding the rarest items. |
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Thorntons of Oxford. Although
primarily a bookstore, Thornton's sells a number of other Tolkien
items, such as ephemera, videotapes and audio recordings of Tolkien's
work. The retail bookstore is located in the center of Oxford and
has a great selection not available on the website. You should stop
in when you make your pilgrimage Oxford. |
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The Tolkien Shop. This is
a regular source for a number of older and unusual items, from -Frodo
Lives- pins to first editions. I have purchased books and posters
from Rene and everything was perfect. |
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The Minds Eye. This company sells its own audio dramatization
of the Lord of the Rings, t-shirts, sweatshirts, figurines, books
and prints. The Mind's Eye, Memory Lane, P.O. Box 6547, Chelmsford,
MA 01824-0947. 800-949-3333. This company has moved around in
recent years and I hope this info is correct. I could not find a web
page for them. |
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The
Tolkien Information Page. This page is a comprehensive listing
of Tolkien links from all over the web. It includes a host of links,
from Games to Tengwar fonts. |
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Tolkien Enterprises.
Tolkien Enterprises is a division of the Saul Zaentz Company,
which in 1976 acquired certain exclusive rights to the names and characters
associated with Middle-Earth, and in 1978 produced a feature-length
animated film of The Lord of the Rings, directed by Ralph Bakshi.
Tolkien Enterprises licenses the names and likenesses of the characters,
places, things and events for use as trademarks and service marks
in connection with various lines of merchandise. Virtually all of
the figures, pins, posters, t-shirts and a host of other items were
licenses by Tolkien Enterprises. They must also be connected in some
way to a company called Elan Merchandising. I expect Elan Merchandising
was specifically connected with the movie merchandising but I do not
know for certain. Many movie-related items are marked Elan Merchandising. |
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al.fan.tolkien. The alt Tolkien
newsgroup. The two major Tolkien newsgroups are largely redundant
and there is considerable cross-posting. Use newsgroups to buy and
sell collectibles, make announcements about items you have on the
internet auctions and discuss middle-earth. |
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rec.arts.books.tolkien. The rec
Tolkien newsgroup. The two major Tolkien newsgroups are largely redundant
and there is considerable cross-posting. Us newsgroups to buy and
sell collectibles, make announcements about items you have on the
internet auctions and discuss middle-earth. |
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A Listing
of Tolkiens Books. This is a concise listing of TolklienŐs
published works. It is not a complete bibliography. |
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Works About
Tolkien. This site has a nice listing of books about Tolkien. |
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J. R. R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography. (1993). Wayne G. Hammond
with the assistance of Douglas A. Anderson. New Castle, DE: Oak
Knoll Books. Oak Knoll BooksIt is also available
from St. Paul's Bibliographies, Winchester, U. K. Anyone willing to
invest real mony in collecting books by Tolkien simply must have this
book. It covers every known detail about the publication of his books.
By reading around the minutia of publishing details, it is actually
an interesting historical account of TolkienŐs trials and tribulations
getting his works out to the public. Interesting themes come through
in this account. It is clear from reading the material on the first
edition of the Lord of the Rings that Allen & Unwin expected the
book to be a failure as a business venture. Rayner Unwin says as much
in his original communication to his father. That characterization
of the book became a theme that worked its evil way through virtually
every subsequent problem with publication, from the small printing
of the first edition of The Fellowship of the Ring, to the copyright
problems with a paperback version in the US. Since no one expected
the book to do well, appropriate plans were not made to deal with
the incredibly high demand for the book. Although Allen & Unwin
had success with the Hobbit, and should have expected at least equivalent
success with the Lord of the Rings, they could not have anticipated
the frenzy of demand that developed, especially in the American mass
market. Although HammondŐs mission in a bibliography is confined to
publishing details, the story seeps through, and sections read like
a journalistŐs account of a sailor making his way through the churning
seas of publishing. |
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HarperCollins Publisher. This
is the HarperCollins web site. You can purchase books directly from
this site. However, the prices are retail and generally higher than
other internet sources. This is a great site for discovering all the
new Tolkien books that HarperCollins publishes. |
 Iron Crown Enterprises - ICE. This was the
company that made numerous Tolkien-related role-playing game modules,
maps, puzzles, board games and card games. The most famous Tolkien
product made by the company was the role-playing card game called
Middle-earth: The Wizards. They produced a tremendous number of these
cards. Virtually all the cards have great artwork and it only appears
on these cards. Some of the artists involved, such as Ed Beard, have
also done some posters and print series based on their artwork. ICE
items come up frequently on the internet auctions. |
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The Dancing Dragon. This
site offers Tolkien-related items from time to time. |
A very high quality, beautiful sword. This would make a great decorative gift for the shield maiden in your life, or someone who just loves equestrian design.
