Tolkien Manuscripts Travel to Oxford
A large-scale exhibition at the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries features twelve items from Raynor Memorial Libraries’ Tolkien archival collection. The items selected for exhibition include four pages from The Hobbit manuscript and eight from the The Lord of the Rings manuscript.
The exhibition, Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth, runs June to October, 2018, at the Bodleian’s Weston Library. It’s accompanied by a richly illustrated book by Tolkien archivist Catherine McIlwaine: Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth. The book represents the largest collection of original Tolkien material ever assembled in a single volume.
Tolkien spent almost all of his adult life in Oxford, and it is the city where he studied, taught, researched and wrote his most famous works. Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries now house the largest archival collection of Tolkien materials. The exhibition there marks first time the Marquette Tolkien manuscripts have returned there since their purchase from Tolkien when he was a professor in the 1950s.
Raynor Memorial Libraries’ own extensive Tolkien collection contains the original manuscripts and multiple working drafts for three of the author’s most celebrated books, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and Farmer Giles of Ham, as well as the original copy of the children’s book Mr. Bliss. The collection also includes books by and about Tolkien, materials created by Tolkien fans, audio and video recordings, and a host of published and unpublished materials relating to Tolkien’s life and fantasy writings.
Learn more about the Tolkien collection at Raynor Memorial Libraries, including the bimonthly public showing of select items from the collection.
