Ever since I read the LOTR, I have wanted one. After I saw the movies, I wanted one more. The problem is I can’t find one anywhere.
I am talking about a complete volume of LOTR (and the Hobbit if possible) as a book like the movie shows it. The book Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam wrote in. A leather bound, medieval type book with special font etc.
I must find it. If it exists, it will no doubt be out of my price range but I’ll hoard money until I get one. I would love to read the Hobbit and LOTR to my kids and think a volume like this would add in setting the mood.
I’ve googled and ebayed (if it works for google, I’m using it for every website) to no avail.
Can anyone help me? Otherwise I will be left with learning a medieval script in order to make my own.
I have the Red Book that Ponder linked too. Very nice book.
There is a excellent illustrated Hobbit available but a full blown Bound Leather book of “There and Back Again” and the “Lord of the Rings” does not exist in my knowledge.
I have an older edition of the Illustrated Hobbit. Good for reading to kids.
Easy. Just type it up and choose an appropriate font. If you want, you can even put it into Tengwar Quenya, the elvish script. That is available at some LOTR websites along with other Middle Earth fonts. Print it out on fine parchment-like paper from the stationers. Then find a bookbinder and tell him what you want.
Good luck the scripts and runic letters have long been available as free fonts.
There are English-Elvish* Dictionaries on the web.
Re-read the Appendix in the Return of the King concerning Language and letters.
I’m sure you could download it as an e-book from somewhere. Then all you’d have to do is copy it into some program that lets you change the font to what you want, and print it off.
Greenback, your first step should be to find a hand bookbinder near you. Use the old-fashioned Yellow Pages as a start.
Hand bookbinders are a vanishing breed, but they are out there. You may have to talk to a few of them before you find one who can do the special kind of leather tooling you are looking for, but any of them will be able to hand-sew and bind the signatures and then set them into a custom leather-bound volume.
Ask them how they need the sheets folded to bind the book, or if they can bind individual sheets. Then you will know how to lay out your print job.
Choose your paper carefully. You’ll want an archival-quality acid-free paper that will last the several generations you can expect from the binding. If you labor at the script yourself, by hand, visit an art-supply store and select your materials carefully. You will want acid-free pigmented ink that won’t fade or attack the paper. Spend a few weeks, or even months, practicing your calligraphy so it becomes a natural as normal writing is for you now. If you don’t want to do it by hand, talk to some print shops and see who can give you the best deal on your print run using (you guessed it) acid free materials.
You *can *do it. It won’t be easy - nothing worthwhile is - but it is within the realm of possibility. And when you are done, you won’t just have your own copy of the Red Book of Westmarch, you will have an individual work of art with its own intrinsic value in addition to the value it borrows as a tribute to JRRT’s work.
I’ve determined that rustic-looking books have been arbitrarily deemed economically unfeesible. This includes blank journals.
True deckle edge paper is expensive and also expensive to properly and evenly bind into a book. Printing on it is very expensive and time-consuming.
Printing script font in a way that doesn’t look artificial requires careful (time-consuming) typography skills. Plus, it’s very taxing to read, especially a long book like LotR.
Real leather and metal and wood for a cover isn’t too bad, but would add to the cost.
Adding to cost would be careful editing (catching typo’s).
Not enough people are willing and able to pay for such a book to make mass-produciton (if even possible) worthwhile.
My guess at price would be between $350 - $500 (US)
I’d pay it.
Of course if you ever complete this, there are several SDMB members that would be interested in a copy. I don’t know about the copyright issues, but perhaps this could lower your cost.
This is an excellent point. Take a few sheets of 11X17 paper and copy out a single typeset page from the book in a reasonably readable longhand. How many sheets does this take? Three, maybe more? Multiply that by the number of pages in all 3 typeset volumes and you have yourself a very unwieldy object.
