Words At Large

A story of small beings is hitting the big times: The Hobbit is being made into not one, but two movies. It’s a far cry from the modest beginnings of the book.

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote the story for his own children, who were its first readers. When he sent it to George Allen & Unwin, the company’s publisher asked his 10-year-old son to vet the manuscript.

Rayner Unwin recommended that the book be published, saying that it would appeal to “children ages five to nine.” He was paid one shilling for his work. Since it came out in 1937, The Hobbit has sold an estimated 100 million copies world-wide. (It’s now published in Canada by Harper Collins.)

In honour of the small hobbit’s move to the big screen, this week’s podcast features an interview with Unwin, who later joined the family firm and became a key figure in British publishing.

The film double bill is scheduled to be released in 2011 and 2012, directed by Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) and produced by Peter Jackson, who was responsible for the Academy Award-winning trilogy The Lord of the Rings.

Unwin was also instrumental in persuading his father to publish The Lord of the Rings. It was his idea to turn the book into a trilogy, against Tolkien’s wishes, to make the epic story more manageable for readers.

Unwin was interviewed by Erika Ritter for CBC’s Dayshift in 1987. The podcast also visits a hobbit camp in Nova Scotia run by the Festival Antigonish Summer Theatre, with a recording from 2006.

Listen to the Words at Large podcast here:

[runs 23:42]