Oxonmoot 2021

In the USA of the counter-culture generation, the Barbara Remington artwork for the Ballantine edition of LOTR, together with the related poster art, arguably became the look of Tolkien for a generation.

In the UK the Pauline Baynes triptych became the celebrated artwork for the first omnibus paperback edition, published by Allen & Unwin in 1968. 

The talk will explore the pleasures of collecting Tolkien paperbacks for their cover art, whilst celebrating the early designs for their novel and very different interpretations of the Middle Earth landscapes.

The talk will go on to deconstruct the contrasting artwork of Baynes and Remington. Both sets of cover art are triptychs, and imagine Tolkien’s world in a series of unforgettable vistas that arguably defined Tolkien for the counter-culture generation.

The talk will include a visual presentation of the related cover art and copies of the books and related ephemera will be on display in Oxford.