{"id":280,"date":"2026-03-22T14:11:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/?p=280"},"modified":"2026-03-22T14:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:12:15","slug":"1967-the-poetry-of-j-r-r-tolkien-the-root-of-the-boot-1st-edition-booklet-the-white-rhinoceros-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/?p=280","title":{"rendered":"1967\u2013 The Poetry of J.R.R. Tolkien\u00a0(The Root of the Boot) \u2013 1st Edition \u2013 Booklet \u2013 The White Rhinoceros Press"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>From <a href=\"https:\/\/tolkienbooks.net\/php\/details2.php?id=102\">https:\/\/tolkienbooks.net\/php\/details2.php?id=102<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>George Burke Johnston\u2019s essay reprints Tolkien\u2019s poem&nbsp;<em>The Root of the Boot<\/em>&nbsp;from&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/tolkienbooks.net\/php\/details2.php?id=98\"><em>Songs for the Philologists<\/em><\/a>. The essay is a slightly revised version of that published in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/tolkienbooks.net\/php\/results.php?Submit=+Search+the+Database+&amp;Author=&amp;Title=Tolkien+Papers&amp;Edition=&amp;Publisher=&amp;ISBN=&amp;Format=&amp;Illustrator=&amp;Notes=\"><em>The Tolkien Papers<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See pp.10-11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The booklet was printed and privately circulated by the author &#8211; it was not available for sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A &#8220;specially printed, specially bound copy of the booklet&#8221; was sent to Tolkien, who responded on 24 May 1968 with a thank you note and explained that in his youth &#8216;root&#8217; was used as &#8216;boot&#8217; is now, i.e. slang for &#8216;kick&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At least one other variant of this booklet has been seen at&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tolkienlibrary.com\/collecting\/collectors\/Beren.htm\">TolkienLibrary.com<\/a>, but if this was published, or just a proof copy is unclear.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Full Title<\/strong>: The Poetry of J.R.R. Tolkien<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Editor<\/strong>: George Burke Johnston<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Artist<\/strong>: N\/A<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Rarity<\/strong>: Very Rare<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Publisher<\/strong>: \u200e The White Rhinoceros Press<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Publication date<\/strong>: \u200e 1967<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Edition<\/strong>: \u200e First Edition<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Print length<\/strong>: \u200e ?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>ISBN-10<\/strong>: \u200eN\/A<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>ISBN-13<\/strong>: N\/A<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Item Weight:<\/strong> \u200e ?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Dimensions<\/strong>: \u200e ?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"350\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/johnston1967.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-281\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From https:\/\/tolkienbooks.net\/php\/details2.php?id=102: George Burke Johnston\u2019s essay reprints Tolkien\u2019s poem&nbsp;The Root of the Boot&nbsp;from&nbsp;Songs for the Philologists. The essay is a slightly revised version of that published in&nbsp;The Tolkien Papers. See pp.10-11. The booklet was printed and privately circulated by the author &#8211; it was not available for sale. A &#8220;specially printed, specially bound copy of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,11,4,19,20,25,47,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-booklet-pamphlet","category-edition","category-first-edition","category-first-edition-and-first-state","category-first-state","category-misc-tolkien","category-rare","category-scholarly-works-and-lectures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284,"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions\/284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}