Monday, March 2, 2009

Lauching the New Website

So, about two years ago when I was finishing up the Introduction to MR. BAGGINS, my edition of J. R. R. Tolkien's original rough draft Mss of THE HOBBIT, I included the following brief announcement:

"For the use of future scholars who might wish to examine the manuscript readings for themselves, I have deposited at Marquette a copy of my complete line-by-line and page-by-page transcription of all the manuscript materials for The Hobbit in the Archives. I have also deposited a copy of Taum Santoski's unfinished edition [circa 1989] for those who wish to compare his readings with my own. Finally, I will also be establishing a website (www.JohnDRateliff.homestead.com) to list errata and changes as new material become available." (page xxviii, emphasis mine)

Despite my good intentions, a busy schedule and my inner Luddite unfortunately combined to prevent my being able to make good on the promise of getting my website up and running.*

Until now. Thanks to the awesome skills of Anne Trent, I now have my website up and running. You can visit it at www.sacnothscriptorium.com. It's a work in progress, and we'll be adding to it down the road, so let me know if you find any errors or discover any glitches.

And yes, it does include the errata list for HISTORY OF THE HOBBIT: if you find any misprints or errors in H.o.H. not listed here, please let me know so I can add it into the master list. Also, if you sent me in errata and I've listed it but didn't credit you, let me know so I can fix that (some I simply wrote into my reference copy without always indicating the source). In some such cases I'd already found the problem myself, but I know a few shd be credited to readers who sent them in via e-mails or comments to this blog.

So, enjoy.

--John R.

current audiobook: John Lawlor's C. S. LEWIS: MEMORIES AND REFLECTIONS [1998], read (wonderfully) by Bernard Mayes [2001].


*although this blog, launched in late March 2007, has in part filled the gap.

2 comments:

Jason Fisher said...

Just out of curiosity, why didn't you use the URL published in the book? People will still be trying to find it at that address.

Ardamir said...

Hi John, it's great to hear that your website is now up. It will be easier to contact you from now on.

Ardamir/Johan