The Genius of Tolkien’s Original The Hobbit Dust Jacket

Electric Literature must raise $35,000 to fund our next chapter. EL’s incoming Executive Director and Publisher, Denne Michele Norris, plans to grow EL’s reach and influence by every measure, while maintaining our sharp, independent spirit. We need your help to ensure our continued success.

Donate now to join us in building EL’s future.

Tolkien’s original artwork for The Hobbit dust jacket is now on display at “The Marks of Genius” exhibit at the Bodleian Library. Other work featured includes Shakespeare’s First Folio, The Gutenberg Bible, and works by Isaac Newton. The artwork was used on the first edition of The Hobbit, a rare copy of which was recently donated to the Texas A&M Libraries by George R. R. Martin:

Many fantasy fans might not realize that Tolkien was a visual artist, but he created many beautiful illustrations for his genre-defining fantasy works.

Bilbo

(h/t Tolkien Society)

More Like This

Going on Book Tour in Fiction and Then in Real Life

Larissa Pham on titles, the implications of the quotation mark, and the ways art imitates life in her debut novel, “Discipline”

Feb 27 - Kyla D. Walker

My Tattoo Helped Me Exert Bodily Autonomy, but Its History Is Misogynistic 

As I transition toward the masculine, my feelings about resembling an instrument modeled after the female body continue to shift

Dec 11 - Max Keller

Frida Deserved Better Than Diego’s Coconut

Two ekphrastic poems by Danilo Marin

Dec 10 - Danilo Marin
Thank You!