Meditations on Middle-Earth (27 page)

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Authors: Karen Haber

Tags: #Fantasy Literature, #Irish, #Middle Earth (Imaginary Place), #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Welsh, #Fantasy Fiction, #History and Criticism, #General, #American, #Books & Reading, #Scottish, #European, #English, #Literary Criticism

BOOK: Meditations on Middle-Earth
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Charles de Lint
is a full-time writer and musician who presently makes his home in Ottawa, Canada, with his wife MaryAnn Harris, an artist and musician. His most recent books are the novel
Forests of the Heart
(Tor Books, 2000) and
Triskell Tales
, an illustrated collection of short stories (Subterranean Press, 2000). Other recent publications include a trade paperback reprint of his novel
Svaha
(Orb, 2000) as well as mass market editions of his novel
Someplace to Be Flying
(Tor Books, 1999) and
Moon-light and Vines
, a third collection of Newford stories which recently won the World Fantasy Award (Tor Books, 2000). For more information about his work, visit his website at
http://www.charlesdelint.com
.

Lisa Goldstein
, Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award finalist, has published eight novels, the most recent being
Dark Cities Underground
from Tor. Her novel
The Red Magician
won the American Book Award for Best Paperback, and her short story collection,
Travellers in Magic
(Tor Books, 1994), was highly acclaimed. Her short fiction appears regularly in many publications, including
Asimov’s
. She lives in Oakland, California, with her husband and their cute dog Spark.

Glenn Herdling
discovered J. R. R. Tolkien in 1978, when he and two friends adapted
The Hobbit
into a comic book to help fund their eighth-grade trip to Washington D.C. As reference for the characters, he consulted the J. R. R. Tolkien calendars illustrated by the Brothers Hildebrandt. That experience led him on the path to fulfill two ambitions in life: to work in the comic book industry, and to meet and work alongside Greg and Tim Hildebrandt. While still attending Bucknell University in 1986, he began his comic book career at Marvel Comics as an editorial intern. In 1995, he left Marvel to take a job as Creative Director at the studio of the Hildebrandt brothers.

Tim and Greg Hildebrandt
were virtually unknown as artists when they won the opportunity to illustrate the 1976 Ballantine calendar based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. They went on to illustrate the Tolkien calendars for the next two years, with the 1978 calendar selling more than one million copies. They then illustrated the bestselling novel by Terry Brooks,
The Sword of Shanarra
. For the movies, they painted a poster for a 1979 re-release of
Barbarella
, the 1981 fantasy film
The Clash of the Titans
, and the world-famous poster for
Star Wars
. The Hildebrandts then went on to write (with Jerry Nichols) and illustrate their epic fantasy novel,
Urshurak
. Their most recent artbook,
Star Wars: The Art of Greg and Tim Hildebrandt
, was released in stores on November 17, 1997. The next one,
Greg and Tim Hildebrandt: The Tolkien Years
, will be published in 2001 by Watson-Guptill.

Terri Windling
is a writer, editor, painter, and a six-time winner of the World Fantasy Award, as well as a passionate advocate of fantasy literature and mythic arts. As an author, she has published
The Wood Wife
(winner of the Mythopoeic Award),
A Midsummer Night’s Faery Tale, The Winter Child, The Raven Queen
, and others, as well as a regular column on folklore and myth in
Realms of Fantasy
magazine. As an editor, she has created numerous anthologies, many of them in partnership with Ellen Datlow, including
the Snow White, Blood Red
adult fairy tales series,
The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror
annual volumes,
Sirens, The Armless Maiden
, the Borderland series (for teenagers) and
A Wolf at the Door
(for children). Previously the Fantasy Editor for Ace Books, she has been a Consulting Fantasy Editor for the Tor Books fantasy line since 1985.

Table of Contents

Preface: The Beat Goes On Karen Haber

Introduction George R. R. Martin

Our Grandfather: Meditations on J. R. R. Tolkien Raymond Feist

Awakening the Elves Paul Anderson

A Changeling Returns Michael Swanwick

If You Give a Girl a Hobbit Esther M. Friesner

The Ring and I Harry Turtledove

Cult Classic Terry Pratchett

A Bar and a Quest Robin Hobb

Rhythmic Pattern in The Lord of the Rings Ursula K. Le Guin

The Longest Sunday Diane Duane

Tolkien After All These Years Douglas A. Anderson

How Tolkien Means Orson Scott Card

The Tale Goes Ever On Charles De Lint

The Mythmaker Lisa Goldstein

“The Radical Distinction . . .” A Conversation with Tim and Greg Hildebrandt Glenn Hurdling

On Tolkien and Fairy-Stories Terri Windling

Author Biographies

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