A new illustrated version of The Silmarillion, featuring paintings and drawings by author J.R.R. Tolkien, will be published this fall, HarperCollins announced in a news release.
Tolkien’s book, a collection of fantasy stories set in the same world as his legendary Lord of the Rings series, was first published in 1977, four years after his death. The book was edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien, who died in 2020.
A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “It is now sadly clear that we shall have no more Middle-Earth books—that is, books in their own right. But thanks to the efforts of Christopher Tolkien, we may be privileged in coming years to follow a progressive and dazzling enrichment of the book we all thought we knew.”
The art featured in the new book has never been collected in one place before; the publisher says it has only been available in academic books and in calendars.
The new edition of the book includes a “letter written by Tolkien in 1951 which provides a brilliant exposition of the earlier Ages, and for the first time in its history is presented with J.R.R. Tolkien’s own paintings and drawings, which reveal the breathtaking grandeur and beauty of his vision of the First Age of Middle-earth,” HarperCollins says.
The new edition of The Silmarillion will be published on Oct. 25.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
