Tolkien in pre-1970 blurbs

[Extollager]

Over at Tolkien authority Douglas Anderson's blog

http://tolkienandfantasy.blogspot.com/

there's an investigation going on relating to books published before 1970 that included blurbs relating to Tolkien on their covers. (This doesn't count books by or about Tolkien.)

After 1969, Tolkienian references became almost institutionalized, you probably could say. But it is interesting to see what was marketed as "as good as Tolkien!" before then. The short summary of that is: swords-and-sorcery fantasy was marketed as Tolkienian (although examples of high fantasy -- E. R. Eddison -- also were). Later, swords-and-sorcery was established as its own publishing genre and I don't suppose you would ever see someone marketing a Robert E. Howard-type of book as "Tolkienian." At least not in English. What they do in, say, Russia I don't know.

Anyway, people have come up with about a dozen paperbacks published before 1970 that were compared to Tolkien. Can anyone identify others?

Does anyone have the Ace edition with the blue Gaughan cover of John Myers Myers' Silverlock? It seems that the back cover copy might allude to Tolkien but no one has verified that yet.

 

[D_Davis]

Does anyone have the Ace edition with the blue Gaughan cover of John Myers Myers' Silverlock? It seems that the back cover copy might allude to Tolkien but no one has verified that yet.

I do. I'll check when I get home.

Cool thread, and neat link.

 

[Extollager]

I'll be checking for your response about Silverlock! Be sure to post it at the Tolkien and Fantasy blog if you do find a Tolkienian blurb there.

 

[Sea Lion Books]

Very informative link.

 

[Pyan]

My First Ballantine Books/Del Rey Edition (Fourth Printing - Jan 1978) of Eddison's Mistress of Mistresses has a blurb on the back cover that states:

Like Tolkien's Middle-Earth, Zimiamvia is a realm which mirrors our own world.

 

[Extollager]

I'm still trying to verify that this particular Ace book

http://www.webstore.com/ACE-SINGLE-...RLOCK,name,1673594,auction_id,auction_details


had a Tolkien or LOTR reference on the back cover.

 

[Extollager]

I acquired a copy of Silverlock by Myers, published by Ace in 1966. By that time Ace had agreed to pay Tolkien (but not his publishers) royalties and not to reprint after their stocks of LOTR ran out. The front and back covers do not contain references to Tolkien, but on the last page of the text block there's a full-page ad for their LOTR set in which they state that theirs is the only edition that pays "full royalties" directly to the author. I think their blurb is probably a response to the statement from Tolkien himself, which appeared on many printings of Ballantine's editions, that the Ballantine edition alone had been published with Tolkien's consent and cooperation. Ace rather impudently tried to make their edition sound more Professor-friendly.

 

[Extollager]

Has anyone found any examples that we missed five years ago?