Smith of Wootton Major.
"Wootton Major it was called because it was not very large, though it was at that time prosperous": First edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's Smith of Wootton Major
Smith of Wootton Major.
TOLKIEN, J.R.R. Illustrations by Pauline Baynes.
$475.00
Item Number: 144732
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company , 1967.
First American edition of Tolkien’s classic fairy story. Small octavo, original cloth, illustrations by Pauline Baynes. Near fine in a very good dust jacket, bookplate. Jacket photograph of Tolkien by Roger Hill.
Smith of Wootton Major began as an attempt to explain the meaning of Faery by means of a story about a cook and his cake, and Tolkien originally thought to call it The Great Cake. It was intended to be part of a preface by Tolkien to George MacDonald's fairy story The Golden Key. The story was first published in the United Kingdom as a stand-alone book by George Allen & Unwin on November 9th 1967, with 11 black and white illustrations and a coloured jacket illustration by Pauline Baynes. Tolkien had asked Baynes to limit her palette to black and white, as she had done for Farmer Giles of Ham; he was pleased with the result. Smith of Wootton Major was first published in the United States by Houghton Mifflin the same year.
