S574 History of the Book - Final Project by R. Stuck
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings:
The Book As…
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings has left its mark indelibly on the study of the history of the book. From its worldwide fandom, its influential, inspiring and sometimes controversial appeal, and its significant impact on culture, this text has maintained momentum through the decades and continues to have resurgence as generations of readers “hand down” this book. Even if one has not read the book, confidently one has heard of it in one form or another. For this project, I chose to present a cohesive examination of the ways The Lord of the Rings has impacted each particular facet of the book cycle we have explored this semester – the book as: artifact, author work, intellectual property, commodity, knowledge, print culture, cultural icon and reader. Not many books can lay claim to creating and shaping a genre, affecting a cultural movement, or incite such a wide range of offshoots from movie franchises to scholarly societies, and so much more.
I had completed a smaller project on The LOTR for an earlier Apex and was left feeling as though there was much more to explore and learn, so I expanded on the facets previously included and fleshed out the new information in respect to the book cycle. Tolkien put much of his life in to the creating the realm of Middle Earth leaving behind quite a trail to follow. Methodology behind researching this final project included reading through primary source documents such as newspaper reviews, interviews, magazine articles, and Tolkien’s letters he frequently penned. With so much information to sort through, the primary sources were a solid place to start in order to gauge the culture and climate in which he was writing and draw conclusions from those who experienced The LOTR phenomena first hand. Moving to secondary sources involved exploring the many books, websites, and journal articles that delve in to various aspects of Tolkien’s life and work. The trick was sifting through the material and refining it in to sources that supported the view of The LOTR through each individual lens of the book cycle. Asking questions such as “how does this book reveal itself as a cultural icon?” or “how did this book impact reader experience?” helped in information refining process.
This was a labor of love that I delighted in working through. The only real challenge the project presented was paring down the vast pool of available sources to pertinent and reliable materials. I spent an entire day just reading through his letters to friends, family, publishers, fans and others. The amount and variety of mediums surround Tolkien’s book truly reflects the magnitude of the work. Enjoy exploring the ways I have investigated and discovered how Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings has imprinted each dimension of the book cycle and book history.
The Book As…
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings has left its mark indelibly on the study of the history of the book. From its worldwide fandom, its influential, inspiring and sometimes controversial appeal, and its significant impact on culture, this text has maintained momentum through the decades and continues to have resurgence as generations of readers “hand down” this book. Even if one has not read the book, confidently one has heard of it in one form or another. For this project, I chose to present a cohesive examination of the ways The Lord of the Rings has impacted each particular facet of the book cycle we have explored this semester – the book as: artifact, author work, intellectual property, commodity, knowledge, print culture, cultural icon and reader. Not many books can lay claim to creating and shaping a genre, affecting a cultural movement, or incite such a wide range of offshoots from movie franchises to scholarly societies, and so much more.
I had completed a smaller project on The LOTR for an earlier Apex and was left feeling as though there was much more to explore and learn, so I expanded on the facets previously included and fleshed out the new information in respect to the book cycle. Tolkien put much of his life in to the creating the realm of Middle Earth leaving behind quite a trail to follow. Methodology behind researching this final project included reading through primary source documents such as newspaper reviews, interviews, magazine articles, and Tolkien’s letters he frequently penned. With so much information to sort through, the primary sources were a solid place to start in order to gauge the culture and climate in which he was writing and draw conclusions from those who experienced The LOTR phenomena first hand. Moving to secondary sources involved exploring the many books, websites, and journal articles that delve in to various aspects of Tolkien’s life and work. The trick was sifting through the material and refining it in to sources that supported the view of The LOTR through each individual lens of the book cycle. Asking questions such as “how does this book reveal itself as a cultural icon?” or “how did this book impact reader experience?” helped in information refining process.
This was a labor of love that I delighted in working through. The only real challenge the project presented was paring down the vast pool of available sources to pertinent and reliable materials. I spent an entire day just reading through his letters to friends, family, publishers, fans and others. The amount and variety of mediums surround Tolkien’s book truly reflects the magnitude of the work. Enjoy exploring the ways I have investigated and discovered how Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings has imprinted each dimension of the book cycle and book history.