Smith of Wootton Major.
TOLKIEN, J.R.R. Illustrations by Pauline Baynes.
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
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company , 1967.
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Item Number: 144732
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.
