1984 The Book of Lost Tales, Part 1 (Patrick Horgan)

Release Date: 1984
Reader: Patrick Horgan
Language: English
Organization: Library of Congress
Publisher: American Printing House for the Blind
ISBN: n/a
Duration: 11 hours 4 minutes
Unabridged: Yes
Country: USA
Licenced: Yes
Format: 3 x C-90 cassettes : analog, 15/16 ips, 4 track, mono.
NLS Book Number: RC 20827

Produced by American Printing House for the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled service of the Library of Congress. This reading was made purely for eligible members of this special library service in the USA and not available for commercial release.

John Patrick Horgan, born 1929 was a British-American actor with a number of film and TV credits (appearing in Star Trek and The Edge of Night) as well as narrating audio books.

The cassettes used Tone Indexing. This allowed users to hear a distinct “beep” while fast-forwarding, signalling the start of a new chapter or a major section of commentary. Horgan includes the full Introduction and every one of Christopher Tolkien’s post-chapter commentaries. Because this was recorded in 1984 for 15/16 ips 4-track tape, surviving digital transfers (often found on the Internet Archive) can sound “muddy” or “muffled.” It lacks the digital clarity of the later Erin Jones recordings.

While Vol. 1 (Horgan) and Vol. 2 (John Horton) were recorded, the NLS famously stopped there, leaving the rest of the 12-volume History of Middle-earth unrecorded for nearly 40 years.