Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/02/18/rip-barbara-remington-illustr.html
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I had these… emphasis on had.
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Evocative rather than illustrative, I loved the way that each cover blended into the next, and got darker with each volume.
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I vividly remember buying and reading these editions in the 1960s, and I can remember wondering “why do these covers have almost nothing to do with the content of the books.” Learning that Remington hadn’t read the books finally explains it.
The other thing that puzzled me about this paperback edition was the note from Tolkien himself thanking readers for buying this particular authorized edition. It seems that sci-fi publisher Ace Books, thinking the copyright on LOTR wasn’t valid, printed and sold an edition without Tolkien’s consent or approval. I will bet you the reason Ballantine was in such a rush to get this into print was because of the whole crazy copyright kerfuffle, explained nicely here:
https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2014/11/j-r-r-tolkien-paperbacks-and-copyright/
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Put your oven mitts on for this hot take buuuuut…I’d rather read the book that is accurately illustrated by those covers…
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Those are the versions I read as a kid.
It remains a source of amazement when book cover illustrators don’t know what’s actually in the books they’re illustrating. I know publishers are better about that now (at least in some countries), but it seems like they’d have some interest in making sure the covers weren’t wildly off-base.
That may be why I was slightly disappointed by the books when I read them.
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For the Two Towers and Return of the King those are the versions I read as a kid too. Fellowship of the Ring we had some different edition. It is really weird seeing that cover for the first time all these years later.
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I have these sitting on my bookshelf right this instant. The bindings are in are a little worse for wear, but they’re right there in the collected box next to the 4-book set i bought sometime in the 80’s for re-reading purposes.
I also used to have the extra wide poster version of all three covers together. That, unfortunately, did not survive the multiple moves, basement floods, and more moves. Bummers
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Agreed. And I wouldn’t be totally surprised to encounter Moomintrolls there.
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I always liked those.
And these seem to be the covers that the cover for Bored of the Rings was based on
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this was the set that i first read, too. they were my older sister’s, now long gone, but i’ve since (very happily) discovered a set in a thrift store, so i have them on my shelf right now. i know everyone says they don’t relate to the story, but i’ve always felt that they really do… there’s the brandywine river, crebain from isengard, there’s a cave with shelob, there’s what could be black riders, and of course mount doom, and a hint of war… they are perfect.
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Mark Ryden did something similar with two related books by Stephen King (one published under King’s pseudonym “Richard Bachmann”).
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AHHHHHHHH!
Screw J.R.R.'s opinions on the matter: I adore that triptych. None of the other LotR cover art I have seen is remotely interesting—possibly excepting own Tolkien’s abstract artwork. In the 80s fantasy cover art took a turn away towards banal naturalism and lost its soul.
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These are the only covers that look right to me, having been burned permanently into my 5th grade brain. Although I’ll admit that I’m not sure I get the Two Towers one.
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Oh dang! I was thinking of Tolkien’s other covers. Yeah his line and watercolor work is tolerable here (and elsewhere: I love Smaug asleep on his treasure 
).
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I suppose the second one is meant (by the publishers) to represent Fangorn Forest; it is, in fact, one of JRRT’s illustrations for The Silmarillion.
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Were these used on the poster size versions of the maps at one point?
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I have the ones I bought as a teen, and still have – loved over the decades and jealously protected from my (now parents themselves) children. Reading to the grandkids will be relegated to the larger print and smaller bulk of e-books, but these – yeah.
And don’t diss the Brem covers – they may not detail the story but the fit the tonal progression perfectly.
This 3 volumes in 1 is the definitive version for me. All of them dog-eared from being carried around long enough to get through it all.
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