• Essay 1, Oct. 2001
• Essay 2, Dec. 2001
• Essay 3, Feb. 2002
• Essay 4, Apr. 2002
• Essay 5, Jun. 2002
• Essay 6, Oct. 2002
• Essay 7, Dec. 2002
• Essay 8, Feb. 2003
• Essay 9, Apr. 2003
• Essay 10, Jun. 2003
• Essay 11, Oct. 2003
• Essay 12, Dec. 2003
The original column on children's fantasy literature can be found in Resource Links magazine. To obtain a licence to make a limited number of copies of the essays for personal or educational use, please contact Access Copyright. For requests to re-print articles, please contact the author.
Note: These booklists are not intended to be a comprehensive children's fantasy literature bibliography. Penguin/Puffin kept many children's classics in print in paperback through the sixties and seventies, but has fewer now than they used to. Random House's Red Fox imprint has been reissuing many classics lately. If you or your bookstore can't find a book in "Books in Print" or listed on the major on-line bookstores such as Amazon Canada, Amazon USA or Amazon UK, or try searching for used copies.
Essay # 6: Tolkien & Lewis ...& Secondary Sources
J.R.R. TOLKIEN
The Hobbit. London: Allen & Unwin, 1937.
(2nd edition 1951; 3rd edition 1966; 4th edition 1978; 50th anniversary edition with colour and black-and-white illustrations prepared for but not all used in the original, Unwin Hymen, 1987; various hardcover and paperback editions now in print from HarperCollins and its imprints. The 1995 HarperCollins hardcover edition which contains Tolkien's illustrations has the ISBN 0261103288)
The Lord of the Rings (LOTR)
• The Fellowship of the Ring. London: Allen & Unwin, 1954.
• The Two Towers. Allen & Unwin, 1954.
• The Return of the King. Allen & Unwin, 1955.
(Second edition, 1966; first issued in one volume in 1968; now published by HarperCollins, available in one volume or three, hardcover and paperback, and in various cover designs.)
The Silmarillion. edited Christopher Tolkien. London: Allen & Unwin, 1977.
(This is the 'final' form of the legendary and epic matter that tells of the creation of Middle-Earth, its peopling, and the wars, betrayals, romances, and heroic struggles that are the past history to the world of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.)
Shorter Works:
Farmer Giles of Ham. London: Allen & Unwin, 1949, paperback 1983.
(Also appears in The Tolkien Reader, in one volume with Smith of Wootton Major from Ballantine in the U.S., and in Tales From the Perilous Realm)
Smith of Wootton Major. London: Allen & Unwin, 1967.
(In Tales From the Perilous Realm.)
'Leaf By Niggle'. Dublin Review, Jan. 1945.
(appears in The Tolkien Reader, Perilous Realm, and Tree and Leaf.)
'The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son'. Essays and Studies, New Series, vol. VI. (A play on the aftermath of the Battle of Maldon; reprinted various places, but the most easily-found in used bookstores is The Tolkien Reader.)
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. London: Allen & Unwin, 1962. (also in The Tolkien Reader and Perilous Realm.)
The Tolkien Reader. New York: Ballantine, 1966.
(contains 'The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son', 'On Fairy Stories', 'Leaf By Niggle', Farmer Giles of Ham, and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.)
Tales From the Perilous Realm. London: HarperCollins, 1997. (Contains Farmer Giles, 'Leaf By Niggle', Tom Bombadil, and Smith of Wootton Major.)
Tree and Leaf. London: Allen and Unwin, 1964. (Original edition is 'On Fairy Stories' and 'Leaf By Niggle'. Second edition of 1988 includes the poem 'Mythopoeia'.)
Posthumously-published shorter works of interest to children:
Roverandom. London: HarperCollins, 1998.
Bilbo's Last Song. Hutchinson Children's Books, 2002
(This poem is Bilbo's farewell to Middle-Earth as he sails from the Grey Havens. The beautiful illustrations are by Pauline Baynes, who also illustrated Farmer Giles, Tom Bombadil, Smith of Wootton Major, and Lewis' Narnia books. They show Bilbo's journey from Rivendell to the Havens, with smaller vignettes recalling his adventures with the dwarves. It originally came out in 1992. For the history of this poem's publication, click here.[Abobe Acrobat format])
Mr Bliss. London: Allen & Unwin, 1982/Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983
Letters From Father Christmas. London: HarperCollins, 1995/Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
(Excerpts from Father Christmas Letters, presented for children.)
The Father Christmas Letters. London: Allen & Unwin, 1976.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Sir Orfeo. Allen & Unwin, 1975. (Tolkien's Modern English translation of three Middle English poems.)
Early drafts of the Silmarillion, Lord of the Rings, and related works, as well as unfinished stories, and so forth, all edited and with extensive notes by Christopher Tolkien, appear as Unfinished Tales and 'The History of Middle-Earth'. These are fascinating reading for literary scholars professional and amateur, but probably of limited appeal to younger kids. Teens interested in writing will find the volumes tracing the development of LOTR particularly interesting. Material originally published by Allen & Unwin or Unwin Hymen is now published by HarperCollins.
Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth. London: Allen & Unwin, 1980.
'The History of Middle-Earth'
I: The Book of Lost Tales 1. Allen & Unwin, 1983.
II: The Book of Lost Tales 2. Allen & Unwin, 1984.
III: The Lays of Bereriand. Allen & Unwin, 1985.
(Alliterative and rhyming epic poetry of stories that are told in the Silmarillion.)
IV: The Shaping of Middle-Earth. Allen & Unwin, 1986.
V: The Lost Road and Other Writings. Unwin Hymen, 1987.
VI: The Return of the Shadow. Unwin Hymen, 1988.
(Volumes VI, VII, VIII and the first part of IX are early drafts and
revisions of The Lord of the Rings, a fascinating look at the evolution of a novel.)
VII: The Treason of Isengard. Unwin Hymen, 1989.
VIII: The War of the Ring. Unwin Hymen, 1990.
IX: Sauron Defeated. HarperCollins, 1992.
X: Morgoth's Ring. HarperCollins, 1993.
XI: The War of the Jewels. HarperCollins, 1994.
XII: The Peoples of Middle-Earth. HarperCollins, 1996.
(Includes the only fragment of a sequel to Lord of the Rings, which Tolkien did not continue, in part because he felt it was likely to turn into a mere thriller. Alas.)
The Chronicles of Narnia:
The Magician's Nephew. The Bodley Head, 1956; Puffin, 1963; now HarperCollins.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Geoffrey Bles, 1950; Penguin, 1959; now HarperCollins.
The Horse and His Boy. Geoffrey Bles, 1954; Puffin, 1965; now HarperCollins.
Prince Caspian. Geoffrey Bles, 1951; Puffin, 1962; now HarperCollins.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Geoffrey Bles, 1952; Puffin, 1965; now HarperCollins.
The Silver Chair. Geoffrey Bles, 1953; Puffin, 1965; now HarperCollins.
The Last Battle. The Bodley Head, 1954; Puffin, 1964; now HarperCollins.
(HarperCollins also has a one-volume edition of all seven books out under the title The Chronicles of Narnia. The Narnia books, as well as Tolkien's Farmer Giles, Tom Bombadil, and Wootton Major, were illustrated by Pauline Baynes.)
An adult science fiction trilogy, which will interest some YA readers:
Out of the Silent Planet. Oxford: Bodley Head, 1938. London: Pan, 1952. HarperCollins, 2000.
Perelandra. Bodley Head, 1943. Under the title Voyage to Venus: Pan Books, 1953. As Perelandra, HarperCollins, 2000.
That Hideous Strength. Bodley Head, 1945. Pan (abridged), 1955. HarperCollins, 2000.
Tolkien and Lewis on Tolkien and Lewis (Directly and Indirectly):
Lewis, C.S. An Experiment in Criticism. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1961.
(A short book on literature and the reading of it, which contains Lewis' thoughts on what makes fiction good.)
Tolkien, J.R.R. Tree and Leaf, 2nd Edition. London: Unwin Hyman, 1988.
(Contains the essay "On Fairy-Stories" derived from his Andrew Lang lecture delivered at St. Andrew's University in 1938; also in The Tolkien Reader.)
--. Foreword. The Lord of the Rings, 2nd Edition. London: Allen and Unwin, 1966.
Carpenter, Humphrey, Editor (with Christopher Tolkien). The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. London: Allen and Unwin, 1981.
Secondary Sources on Tolkien and Lewis: -- Jump back to Top --
Carpenter, Humphrey. J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography. London: Allen and Unwin, 1977. (Reissued as a mass market paperback, HarperCollins, 2002.)
--. The Inklings: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and Their Friends. London: Allen and Unwin, 1978. (Reissued by HarperCollins, 1997.)
Shippey, T.A. The Road to Middle-Earth. London: Allen and Unwin, 1982. (Reissued by HarperCollins, 1992.)
Shippey, Tom. J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century. London: HarperCollins, 2000.
©2002 K.V. Johansen
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