Playingjane - Playing Jane

Jessie M. King, illustrations for The High History of the Holy Graal, 1903.

On this day in 1937, JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit was published for the first time. Tolkien had been grading papers in the late 1920s or early 1930s (accounts vary), when out of nowhere he scribbled the novel’s opening words “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit” on a piece of paper. His inspirations for the book ranged from Norse mythology to Beowulf to William Morris to the Germanic language. Although The Hobbit is frequently classed as children’s literature, Tolkien disagreed with that categorization, saying, “If you’re a youngish man and you don’t want to be made fun of, you say you’re writing for children.” The first edition of The Hobbit differs in small but substantial ways from the second edition. By 1937, Tolkien had started on The Lord of the Rings trilogy with the sinister One Ring as its centerpiece and decided he need to revise the chapter about Bilbo’s encounter with Gollum to be more in line with events in his new books. In the first version of “Riddles in the Dark,” Gollum is a far less treacherous character, who cheerfully wagers his “precious” in the game of riddles he plays with Bilbo. When Gollum goes looking for the Ring and can’t find it, Bilbo having already secretly pocketed it, he is only sorry that he can’t give it to Bilbo for winning the game. He then willingly leads Bilbo out of the cave where they’ve met. In the revised version, of course, Bilbo forfeits his life if he loses the game (Gollum’s suggestion) and despite winning it, is pursued out of the cave by a murderous Gollum, anyway.

Featured here is the first American edition, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1938. In addition to the original version of “Riddles in the Dark,” it contains four color plates of Tolkien’s illustrations and red maps on the end-papers. The Hobbit has not been out of print since its publication 78 years ago. SL JRR Tolkien. The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again. (Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1938)

823 T57h1938: http://vufind.carli.illinois.edu/vf-uiu/Record/uiu_1212784/Description

Reading Goal - Read about people whose stories inspire my own. 

(This one was inspired by the “Google Doodle” for today.)

Book Photo Challenge | June 2015 | Nature

Gift for myself, "Lady Tarot Cards - LGBT+/POC tarot deck featuring women and non-binary people" @ladytarotcards

What you need to know about DACA, right now.

On September 5th, 2017, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, on behalf of the Trump Administration, announced an end to the DACA Program.

1. Your DACA is valid until its expiration date.

2. No New DACA applications will be accepted.

3. DACA Issuance’s and work permits expiring between now and March 5, 2018 must be submitted for renewal by October 5th, 2017.

4. Advance parole to travel abroad is no longer available.

5. We are united in this fight.

You are not alone. We mobilized, organized, and marched five years ago for DACA, and we will continue to do everything in our power to protect immigrant youth and their families across the country. Visit weareheretostay.com for resources to help you and your loved ones take care of themselves in this difficult time as well as information on what you can do to take action now.

Signal boost!

An excellent summer reading list.

“Whether you’re camped out on the beach or curled up on the couch on a rainy day, there’s nothing quite like sitting down with a great book in the summer. While we were still in the White House, I began sharing my summer favorites—and over the years, it’s become a little tradition that I look forward to sharing with you all. So without further ado, here are some books I’ve read recently. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.” Barack Obama via Instagram

One of twelve volvelles in Trithemius, Polygraphie, 1561. The title written on the fore-edge of this book suggests that it belonged to John Dee. It’s a book about cryptography, and the volvelles are cipher discs used to encoding or decoding text.

The RCP library has the largest known collection of books from John Dee’s library, going on display from January 2016.