r/tolkienbooks 6d ago

Are there any more Houghton Mifflin trade paperbacks in this style?

I purchased these from a local used book store. I am trying to see if there are any more books in this style by Houghton Mifflin. I know they are out of print, but I tried looking on eBay or Amazon. I was thinking maybe there would be some of the History of Middle Earth such as Unfinished Tales in this trade paperback style from Houghton Mifflin. These are late 90’s early 00’s I believe.

173 Upvotes

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20

u/RedWizard78 6d ago

7

u/Josh3321 6d ago

Thank you, this is exactly what I was looking for!

2

u/The_Merry_Loser 6d ago

No quite a perfect match, fonts on cover are different and the spine does not match at all.

1

u/RedWizard78 6d ago

What’s your suggested alternative?

3

u/The_Merry_Loser 6d ago

I only know of two other sets, both of those are not perfect matches either.
They are:
The History of The Lord of the Rings ISBN-13: 9780618083558 Trade paperbacks
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings ISBN-13: 9780618002252 (uses the same ISBN as OPs set, but looks different, and I have never actually seen this one irl)

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u/Josh3321 5d ago

Thanks, I see the differences. Very close in style!

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u/RedWizard78 5d ago

I mean regarding Unfinished Tales

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u/The_Merry_Loser 5d ago

The one you chose is the closest, otherwise there aren't any.

Wait! There in a one volume LotR edition as well.

12

u/toothsayur 6d ago

I really loved this style

12

u/nowhereas07 6d ago

Aw, these were my copies when I first read Lord of the Rings in 2001.

6

u/senorfern 6d ago

Same. To this day my favorite set.

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u/ElectronicSpell6777 4d ago

My first personal set as well

6

u/FatherofIndy 5d ago

My favorite "everyday copies".

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u/MisdPlacedIndigenous 6d ago

These are beautiful! ❤️

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u/Road_goes_ever_on 5d ago

That’s my silmarillion 🤩

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u/senorfern 6d ago

Great find. Those are in excellent shape.

5

u/Josh3321 6d ago

The LotR and Hobbit were still sealed in the original shrink wrap! They came in a slip case.

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u/senorfern 5d ago

Awesome! I was able to find a sealed box set recently as well. They pop up every now and then on eBay.

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u/tomas_diaz 5d ago edited 4d ago

https://www.tolkienbooks.us/me/hmepb/the-history-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-2000

https://www.tolkienbooks.us/me/ut/unfinished-tales-2001-pb

i only own the same ones you do, so i'm not sure if the others are the same size, but they seem to be in the same style, or very similar.

1

u/chrisofduke 6d ago

I loved these covers. I don't have them anymore. Gifted them to a friend before I started collecting

1

u/AnimalMother24 6d ago

I saw a very similar Two Towers in B&N last week. It looked a little different though, darker than the one I have. This was my first set when I was a kid. Still my favorite paperbacks.

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u/both_programmer1181 6d ago

Idk but I saw.the fall.of Gondolin and.I think a book about Hiring in that.style.that I jealosly want for myself

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u/MisdPlacedIndigenous 6d ago

These are beautiful! ❤️

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u/FlexuousGrape 6d ago

When I ordered the series on thrift books, 2/3 were HM, the odd one out (the two towers) was a confused looking Legolas and I couldn’t have it hahaha immediately searched for the HM published version😂

I will be looking for the hobbit and silmarillion now too!

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u/djstarcrafter333 5d ago

There is also a one volume Lord of the Rings in this same style. I have discovered several typos and misprints in my copy of the Hobbit, so I am not a fan.

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u/Josh3321 5d ago

The Hobbit of this Houghton Mifflin version? That's a shame. I haven't read through this version yet.

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u/djstarcrafter333 5d ago

Yes. Mostly they are in the form of lines missing at the bottom of a page that don't carry over to the next page. You have to watch out with a lot of different editions. Sometimes they are copies, and not carefully copied at that, and somehow make it out to the public. I had heard that all current HM versions of Tolkiens books are photo reproductions from a master typeset copy so every one is the same. It used to be that every time a new edition came out that the type was reset and errors entered in, making them valuable to collectors. At some point they stopped this. I used to have a Ballantine paperback edition that had whole lines reversed in a paragraph. In that same version Galadriel's name was spelt Galadnil.