As if under the spell of the "one ring" itself, 1960's college-goers flocked to bookstores to get their hands on a copy of The Lord of the Rings. An excerpt from a Time magazine article describes the phenomenon:
“The hobbit habit seems to be almost as catching as LSD. On many U.S. campuses, buttons declaring FRODO LIVES and GO GO GANDALF—frequently written in Elvish script—are almost as common as football letters…Permanently hooked Ringworms frequently memorize long passages from the trilogy and learn how to write Tengwar or Certar, two peculiar and ancient-looking scripts that Tolkien invented on behalf of his mythical creatures. The most ardent readers of all are likely to join the nation's fast-growing Tolkien Society of America, which publishes magazines containing learned disquisitions on the elaborate genealogies and intricate rules of grammar that the author attached as appendices to the trilogy.”
Tolkien's saga took on a cult like status with its readership. "From 1965 onward, and during a time when the focus of American culture generally became increasingly fixed on youth, masses of college-aged readers swelled the ranks of, and ultimately became entirely identified with, Tolkien’s audience.” (Ripp, 2005) Resnick declares that "Tolkien fans are not satisfied with merely reading, however; they proselytize, and their number steadily increases." (1966) The paperback version came with a lower price tag making it more accessible to the masses and bringing more popularity. Danton states that "book consumption can serve as only a crude indicator of tastes and values among the reading public, and it may appear impertinent to talk about 'consuming' books in the first place. But the purchase of a book is a significant act, when considered culturally as well as economically. It provides some indication of the spread of ideas beyond the intellectual milieu within which intellectual history is usually circumscribed." (1979)
It has since been translated into nearly "all major European languages" and "furthermore made a major change in public literary taste, creating a wave of imitations. (Shipley, 2006) A great impact is still seen even 50 years post publication as the books were turned in to feature films by Peter Jackson creating a wave of new interest in the texts, as well as video games, new book editions, and paraphernalia related to Tolkien's works. Hundreds of millions of copies of Tolkien's epic fantasy have been sold worldwide. What makes this book so popular? Foster sums it up saying, "...it is, first and last, a great story. Its themes—friendship, choice, power, nature, machines, loss, salvation—are not of one time, but for all time. As Bilbo once sang, 'The Road goes ever on.'" (2003)
“The hobbit habit seems to be almost as catching as LSD. On many U.S. campuses, buttons declaring FRODO LIVES and GO GO GANDALF—frequently written in Elvish script—are almost as common as football letters…Permanently hooked Ringworms frequently memorize long passages from the trilogy and learn how to write Tengwar or Certar, two peculiar and ancient-looking scripts that Tolkien invented on behalf of his mythical creatures. The most ardent readers of all are likely to join the nation's fast-growing Tolkien Society of America, which publishes magazines containing learned disquisitions on the elaborate genealogies and intricate rules of grammar that the author attached as appendices to the trilogy.”
Tolkien's saga took on a cult like status with its readership. "From 1965 onward, and during a time when the focus of American culture generally became increasingly fixed on youth, masses of college-aged readers swelled the ranks of, and ultimately became entirely identified with, Tolkien’s audience.” (Ripp, 2005) Resnick declares that "Tolkien fans are not satisfied with merely reading, however; they proselytize, and their number steadily increases." (1966) The paperback version came with a lower price tag making it more accessible to the masses and bringing more popularity. Danton states that "book consumption can serve as only a crude indicator of tastes and values among the reading public, and it may appear impertinent to talk about 'consuming' books in the first place. But the purchase of a book is a significant act, when considered culturally as well as economically. It provides some indication of the spread of ideas beyond the intellectual milieu within which intellectual history is usually circumscribed." (1979)
It has since been translated into nearly "all major European languages" and "furthermore made a major change in public literary taste, creating a wave of imitations. (Shipley, 2006) A great impact is still seen even 50 years post publication as the books were turned in to feature films by Peter Jackson creating a wave of new interest in the texts, as well as video games, new book editions, and paraphernalia related to Tolkien's works. Hundreds of millions of copies of Tolkien's epic fantasy have been sold worldwide. What makes this book so popular? Foster sums it up saying, "...it is, first and last, a great story. Its themes—friendship, choice, power, nature, machines, loss, salvation—are not of one time, but for all time. As Bilbo once sang, 'The Road goes ever on.'" (2003)
References:
Darnton, Robert (1979). The Business of Enlightenment: A Publishing History of the Encyclopédie 1775-1800. Harvard University Press. Via eduscapes.com
Joseph Ripp. "Middle America Meets Middle-Earth: American Discussion and Readership of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of The Rings, 1965-1969." Book History 8.1 (2005): 245-286. Project MUSE. Web. 16 Apr. 2015. <https://muse.jhu.edu/>.
Resnick, H. (1966, July 2). The Hobbit-Forming World of J.R.R. Tolkien. Saturday Evening Post, pp. 90-94.
Shippey, T.A., ‘Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel (1892–1973)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31766, accessed 16 April 2015]
The Hobbit Habit. (1966). Time, 88(3), 70.
Image: Retrieved from http://io9.com/5966492/10-most-unlikely-things-that-were-shaped-by-jrr-tolkien
Darnton, Robert (1979). The Business of Enlightenment: A Publishing History of the Encyclopédie 1775-1800. Harvard University Press. Via eduscapes.com
Joseph Ripp. "Middle America Meets Middle-Earth: American Discussion and Readership of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of The Rings, 1965-1969." Book History 8.1 (2005): 245-286. Project MUSE. Web. 16 Apr. 2015. <https://muse.jhu.edu/>.
Resnick, H. (1966, July 2). The Hobbit-Forming World of J.R.R. Tolkien. Saturday Evening Post, pp. 90-94.
Shippey, T.A., ‘Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel (1892–1973)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31766, accessed 16 April 2015]
The Hobbit Habit. (1966). Time, 88(3), 70.
Image: Retrieved from http://io9.com/5966492/10-most-unlikely-things-that-were-shaped-by-jrr-tolkien