Pre-Order The Children of Hurin

Tolkien News and the Tolkien Library have more info about The Children of Hurin and you can pre-order it on Amazon (UK only, so far). No news on when you can pre-order it on US Amazon.

The Children of Hurin

More news on Children of Hurin from the Mythsoc Yahoo Group:

Tolkien News has announced that the Tolkien Estate has launched it own official website. Although the site is still under construction it does confirm the 2007 publication date for The Children of Hurin. It will contain artwork by Alan Lee, and a map and editorial notes by Christopher Tolkien.

(Another) Unfinished Tolkien Work to Be Published

I found this on the Mythopoeic Society Yahoo! Group today:

Unfinished Tolkien Work to Be Published

The Associated Press
Monday, September 18, 2006; 12:17 PM

NEW YORK -- An unfinished tale by J.R.R. Tolkien has been edited by his son into a completed work and will be released next spring, the U.S. and British publishers announced Monday.

Christopher Tolkien has spent the past 30 years working on "The Children of Hurin," an epic tale his father began in 1918 and later abandoned. Excerpts of The Children of Hurin, which includes the elves and dwarves of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and other works, have been published before.

"It has seemed to me for a long time that there was a good case for presenting my father's long version of the legend of the 'Children of Hurin' as an independent work, between its own covers," Christopher Tolkien said in a statement.

The new book will be published by Houghton Mifflin in the United States and HarperCollins in England.

J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings Trilogy" has sold more than 50 million copies and was also adapted into a blockbuster, Academy Award-winning trio of films. A stage version is scheduled to open next year.

Michael Drout discusses The Children of Hurin on his blog, Wormtalk and Slugspeak. He says it will have a new map and artwork by Alan Lee.

This AP article has also led to a debate about how many copies of LotR have really been sold. 50 million does seem low.

I must say, I am impressed. Christopher must be in his 80s now and has already published 12 volumes of his father's unpublished drafts with Christopher's commentary and explanation. I figured he deserved to rest after all that, and yet he has another book for us. Thank you, Christopher!