Middle-earth in New York City: Answers from curator John McQuillen

My visit to Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth in New York City was an absolute pleasure. To see another edition of this outstanding exhibition was well worth the trip. What had been changed in comparison to the Oxford edition, the challenges in difference, the opportunities to present differently – all those were questions I wanted to ask John McQuillen, Associate Curator of Printed Books at The Morgan Library & Museum.

Could you tell the readers a bit about you and your work with the Morgan and how much work went into the curation of this exhibition?

I am a curator in the Printed Books department and focus on the invention of printing in Europe around 1450 with the Gutenberg Bible through the 16th century…basically Renaissance books. I do not work on 20th-century literature; however, my background is in Medieval Studies and Medieval Art History, so I was familiar with Prof. Tolkien as a scholar of Old and Middle English literature rather than through the legendarium.

To read the full interview please visit my blog TheTolkienist.com.