there are other things I should be doing right now, clearly.
Recently I have been making my way through Humphrey Carpenter's beautiful biography of J. R. R. Tolkien. As I approach the end of the book, my pace seems to have slowed somewhat. Truth be told, I am a little in love. I don't want to say good-bye just yet. Anyhow, to come to my point, there is a bit that I wanted to share about how, in a rush to get a paperback version of The Hobbit in print, the American publishing company Ballantine pushed a copy out without Tolkien's revisions and without bothering to employ an artist who'd actually read the book to do the cover art.
..Ballantine's cover picture seemed to have no relevance whatever to The Hobbit, for it showed a hill, two emus, and a curious tree bearing bulbous fruit. Tolkien exploded: 'What has it got to do with the story? Where is this place? Why emus? And what is the thing in the foreground with pink bulbs?' When the reply came that the artist hadn't time to read the book, and that the object with pink bulbs was 'meant to suggest a Christmas tree', Tolkien could only answer: 'I begin to feel that I am shut up in a madhouse.'
(Carpenter, 304)
Now, this is a fantastic story, but, not only that, upon examination of one of the copies of The Hobbit that I own, I discovered that it has the very same (or close to the very same) cover as the one described in this passage. Unfortunately, this particular copy I purchased from Value Village and in the exact sad state as you will see in the photo below. Alas, the emus seem to have been torn away long ago, more likely by a careless reader than a Tolkien sympathizer. Personally, I have decided that, henceforth, "Why emus?!" will be my go-to outburst for so many of those times when the world seems to have gone sideways, and I encourage you all to join me. For Tolkien.
..Ballantine's cover picture seemed to have no relevance whatever to The Hobbit, for it showed a hill, two emus, and a curious tree bearing bulbous fruit. Tolkien exploded: 'What has it got to do with the story? Where is this place? Why emus? And what is the thing in the foreground with pink bulbs?' When the reply came that the artist hadn't time to read the book, and that the object with pink bulbs was 'meant to suggest a Christmas tree', Tolkien could only answer: 'I begin to feel that I am shut up in a madhouse.'
(Carpenter, 304)
Now, this is a fantastic story, but, not only that, upon examination of one of the copies of The Hobbit that I own, I discovered that it has the very same (or close to the very same) cover as the one described in this passage. Unfortunately, this particular copy I purchased from Value Village and in the exact sad state as you will see in the photo below. Alas, the emus seem to have been torn away long ago, more likely by a careless reader than a Tolkien sympathizer. Personally, I have decided that, henceforth, "Why emus?!" will be my go-to outburst for so many of those times when the world seems to have gone sideways, and I encourage you all to join me. For Tolkien.