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Barbara Remington

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Name
  
Barbara Remington


Role
  
Artist

Barbara Remington LOTR coverart by Barbara Remington from Ballantines 1965 edition

Barbara Remington is an American artist and illustrator. Born in Minnesota, she is probably best known for her cover-art for Ballantine Books' first paperback editions of J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and for her Tolkien-related poster A Map of Middle-earth.

Barbara Remington wwwtolkienguidecomuploadsartbremmediumjpg

In an interview about her association with Tolkien's works, Remington mentions that she had not been able to get hold of the books before making the illustration, and had only a sketchy idea from friends what they were about. Tolkien, the author, could not understand why her illustration included what he thought were pumpkins in a tree, or why a lion appeared at all (the lions were removed from the cover of later editions).

Remington became a huge Tolkien fan, and would have "definitely drawn different pictures" had she read the books first.

The popularity of the artwork led to a large edition of the poster as well as work for similar genre fiction such as The Worm Ouroboros by Eric Rücker Eddison. She has also illustrated a number of children's books.

References

Barbara Remington Wikipedia