USA’s Tolkien Audio Productions

The USA’s Tolkien audio output is dominated by the American Printing House productions for the Library of Congress. See here for a much more detailed guide. Caedmon have released extensive recordings made by JRR and Christopher Tolkien and Recorded Books Inc gave us the unabridged readings of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by Rob Inglis – for decades the only official unabridged readings.

There have also been very notable amateur productions, the Mind’s Eye (under the direction of Bernard Mayes) made enthusiastically spirited dramatisations. While in the 2010s two remarkable, fan-based passion projects gave us superb unabridged soundscapes with full music and sound effects – The Lord of the Rings by Phil Dragash and The Hobbit by Bluefax.

Productions

Artists

1967	Poems and Songs of Middle Earth	JRR Tolkien	Caedmon
1967	The Hobbit	Alan Haines	Library of Congress
1968	The Lord of the Rings	Norman Barrs	Library of Congress
1968	The Hobbit	Harold Innocent	KPFK
1971	The Lord of the Rings	Livingston Gilbert	Library of Congress
1975	Reads and Sings The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring	JRR Tolkien	Caedmon
1975	Reads and Sings The Two Towers and Return of the King	JRR Tolkien	Caedmon
1977	The Silmarillion: Of Beren and Lúthien	Christopher Tolkien	Caedmon
1977	JRR Tolkien Soundbook / Collection	JRR & Christopher Tolkien	Caedmon
1978	The Silmarillion	Bob Askey	Library of Congress
1978	The Hobbit	Bob Askey	Library of Congress
1978	The Darkening of Valinor and the Flight of the Noldor	Christopher Tolkien	Caedmon
1979	The Hobbit	Full Cast	Mind’s Eye
1979	The Lord of the Rings	Full Cast	Mind’s Eye
1982	Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth	Norman Barrs	Library of Congress
1984	The Book of Lost Tales, Part 1	Patrick Horgan	Library of Congress
1986	The Book of Lost Tales, Part 2	John Horton	Library of Congress
1990	The Lord of the Rings	Rob Inglis	Recorded Books Inc
1991	The Hobbit	Rob Inglis	Recorded Books Inc
1999	The Lord of the Rings	David Palmer	Library of Congress
2001	The Hobbit	Carol Jordan Stewart	Library of Congress
2006	The Silmarillion	Erin Jones	Library of Congress
2007	Essential Tolkien	JRR Tolkien	HarperCollins
2008	The Children of Húrin	Roy Avers	Library of Congress
2008	Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth	Erin Jones	Library of Congress
2009	A Rare Recording Of	JRR Tolkien	Listen & Live Audio
2010	The Lord of the Rings	Phil Dragash	Amateur
2017	On Fairy Stories	Commando Solo	Amateur
2017	Beren and Lúthien	Steven Carpenter	Library of Congress
2019	The Hobbit	Bluefax	Amateur
2019	The Fall of Gondolin	George Holmes	Library of Congress
2022	On Fairy Stories	James Majewski	Catholic Culture Audiobooks
2023	The Fall of Númenor	George Holmes	Library of Congress
2023	The Adventures of Tom Bombadil	Andy Pyle	Library of Congress
2023	The Lays of Beleriand	George Holmes	Library of Congress
2023	The Lost Road and Other Writings	George Holmes	Library of Congress
2024	The Shaping of Middle-Earth	George Holmes	Library of Congress