HarperCollins Releasing Tolkien's Works in Ebook Format

Posted on April 21, 2009

Fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings will soon be able to read the classic fantasy tales on their favorite ereader. HarperCollins announced it has secured the electronic rights to the entire Tolkien library. A new global initiative by the publisher will make available the ebook editions of all of Tolkien's works.

The first three titles, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings (available in its three parts - The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King, and as a complete version) and The Children of Hurin were released yesterday. The Legend of Sigurdand Gudrun (simultaneous publication with the hardback), The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales will be released on May 5th. More titles will be available later this year.

Amanda Ridout, Managing Director, for the publisher, says in a statement, "HarperCollins is immensely privileged to be the publisher of JRR Tolkien - one of the most admired and loved authors of the 20th Century. This marks a new and exciting chapter when we can bring his great works in a new format to additional readers of all ages around the world."

The ebooks are compatible with all major ebook readers, including Amazon's Kindle and the Sony Ebook reader.