[Mithadan]

I first read The Hobbit in 1971 0r 72, quickly followed by LoTR, with several quick rereads of both. Around 1975, I read LoTR carefully with a notebook at the ready, and wrote down every single "work" referred to in the story and in the appendices. Then, I went to a bookstore and sat down with a very patient clerk and went through Books in Print in the hope that I could order a copy of "books" like The Fall of Gondolin that clearly had to exist. I, of course, learned that the only books by JRRT in print at that time were The Hobbit, LoTR, The Tolkien Reader and (my memory is less than clear about this and I do not have patience to research it) possibly The Road Goes Ever On (which I tracked down a few years later), The Monsters and the Critics, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The lack of more stories of the history of Middle Earth really depressed me for a bit, particularly since I knew the Professor had died.