COMMEMORATIVE VOLUME HAS A FAMILIAR 'RING'

Commemorative volume has a familiar 'Ring'
To mark the 50th anniversary of the U.S. publication of "The Lord of the Rings," Houghton Mifflin is offering a new deluxe one-volume edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic fantasy trilogy.
The leather-bound, slipcased volume has gilt-edged pages and a ribbon bookmark. Inside are two fold-out maps and a four-page color insert showing leaves from the story's "Book of Mazarbul."
Appendixes contain family trees, a chronology, calendars, and a writing and spelling guide. There are separate indexes for characters, places, things, and songs and verses.
"The Lord of the Rings" is about the inhabitants of Middle-earth, especially the furry-footed Hobbits. One Hobbit, Frodo Baggins, is accompanied by an assortment of creatures on his journey to destroy a powerful Ring and thus keep it from falling into the hands of his evil pursuers.
The first book in the trilogy, "The Fellowship of the Ring," was followed by "The Two Towers" (1955) and "The Return of the King" (1956).
The commemorative edition contains more than 1,000 pages and sells for $100.
Also from Houghton Mifflin comes an updated edition of Tolkien's "The Silmarillion," edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien.
The new edition features color reproductions of 48 paintings by Ted Nasmith, including 26 new ones.
"The Silmarillion" tells the earliest tales of Middle-earth and features battles of good vs. evil that predate the events in "The Lord of the Rings." Tolkien had worked on "The Silmarillion" throughout his life. It was published posthumously in 1977.
The new edition is published in hardcover at $35.
Associated Press