1982 Unfinished Tales (Norman Barrs)

Release Date: 1982.04.01
Reader: Norman Barrs
Language: English
Organization: Library of Congress
Publisher: American Printing House for the Blind
ISBN: n/a
Duration: 21 hours 19 minutes
Unabridged: Yes
Country: USA
Licenced: Yes
Formats: 5 x C-90: analog, 15/16 ips, 4 track, mono.
NLS Book Number: RC 17615

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.

Norman Barrs was born on 6 November 1917 in London, England, UK. An actor who spent much of his later career in the United States. He was a veteran of the New York stage and a prolific voice artist. He appeared in numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway productions from the 1960s through the 1980s. Notable credits include the 1965 production of The Pickwick Papers and various Shakespearean roles.

Barrs recorded the first-ever unabridged audio versions of both The Lord of the Rings and Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth. Unlike the cinematic or theatrical approaches of modern narrators, Barrs was known for a very precise, clear, and “proper” British delivery. This made him a favorite for educational and archival recordings. He died on 14 December 1991 in New York City, New York, USA.

In the early 1980s, the NLS sometimes re-indexed books if they were moved between regional distribution centres or if the master tapes were duplicated for a wider Phase II rollout. So while RC 17615 is the birth-number of the recording, RC 18601 appears in several NLS Tolkien Book Lists from 1983-1984. RC 17615 is listed at 21h 19m, whereas some later entries for the same recording (under different IDs) show roughly 19.5 hours. Although this was released on cassette (RC), the production masters were still aligned with the “Record Side” timings used in the early 80s, which often influenced the pacing of the narration.

Norman Barrs read the full Introduction, all four parts of the book (First, Second, Third Ages, and The Five Wizards/Palantiri), and all accompanying footnotes/endnotes, however he did not read the Index of Names. This is why his runtime (21h 19m) is approximately 4 hours shorter than the 2008 Erin Jones master (25h 04m), which included the full Index.

This recording was officially retired and superseded in 2008 by the Erin Jones digital recording (DB 65877) and regional NLS libraries were instructed to discard the RC 17615 cassettes. Consequently, original 4-track cassette copies are now significantly rarer than his more common The Lord of the Rings cassettes.