First Editions

[Mithadan]

<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Wight
Posts: 143</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE>
A bit of advice from a non-expert. There is a rapidly developing market for first editions of JRRT's works. Even the Silm., UT, and HoME volumes seem to generate higher bids on the auction sites if they are listed as &quot;first editions&quot;. A word of warning. There are first editions and there are FIRST EDITIONS.

To a collector, a book is not a first edition if it is not also the first printing. To clarify, all of a particular book that are printed before an actual revision to the text occurs are &quot;first editions&quot;. However, the original type for a book wears out as the book is produced and the type is replaced, sometimes with errors, or, alternatively, errors are corrected without the edition changing. A true first printing is done with the original type (usually). A first edition may be printed over many printings over many years (the first edition of the Hobbit was printed for about 30 years even though it was revised around 1955 to change the story of Gollum offering the ring to Bilbo as a present to the current version). I think that the Sil. was printed as a first edition until last year (or maybe this year).

Different publishers indicate a first printing in different ways. Some just say first edition with nothing else until the printing changes. Others state &quot;first printing&quot;. A succesion of numbers is sometimes used to indicate the printing (&quot;11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2&quot; may be a second printing). However, some publishers add a letter when the printing exceeds 10 (&quot;C 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1&quot; might mean 31st printing). There is no international standard for showing what printing a book is, so if you decide you want to collect first editions of anything, you need to figure out how the publisher indicates a first printing. Otherwise, the &quot;first edition&quot; Silmarillion that you pay $30.00 for may turn out to have been printed in 1998.

--Mithadan--
"The Silmarils with living light
were kindled clear, and waxing bright
shone like stars that in the North
above the reek of earth leap forth." </p>Edited by: <A HREF=http://www.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_profile&u=00000004>Mithadan </A> at: 10/3/00 10:19:21 am

[Mister Underhill]

<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Haunting Spirit
Posts: 75</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE>
Re: First Editions

Mithadan, do you have a first edition LotR? You seem quite knowledgable on the subject. I am trying to figure out if the appendices in Return of the King were present in the first edition or if they were added later. Anybody?

</p>

[Mithadan]

<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Wight
Posts: 153</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE>
Re: First Editions

I do not have a First Edition LoTR (although I do have a first ed. 4th printing of the Hobbit, containing the &quot;original&quot; Gollum story), but, as I understand it, the appendices were not in the true first edition. They either came in during the second printing or the second edition in 1965, I don't recall which. But I may be mistaken.

--Mithadan--
"The Silmarils with living light
were kindled clear, and waxing bright
shone like stars that in the North
above the reek of earth leap forth." </p>

[Mister Underhill]

<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Haunting Spirit
Posts: 77</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE>
Re: First Editions

I suspect your right. The tone of the foreword of the edition I'm looking at suggests he added the appendices after the initial printing. Can anyone else confirm this? Where's Saulotus when you need him?

</p>

[Mithadan]

<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Wight
Posts: 159</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE>
Re: First Editions

I may be wrong on the absence of the appendices. Looked at Letters and found a reference to corrections being made prior to the date of publication of Return of the King. Also, check out LoTR Collector's Site, which describes the first editions of LoTR and how they can, to an extent, be identified. It makes no reference to the abscence of a appendix. www.tolkien.nu/collectors/bibliography.htm. Another less informational bibliography is at www.forodrim.org/arda/tbchron.html. Do you think you have found a first ed.?

--Mithadan--
"The Silmarils with living light
were kindled clear, and waxing bright
shone like stars that in the North
above the reek of earth leap forth." </p>Edited by: <A HREF=http://www.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_profile&u=00000004>Mithadan </A> at: 10/5/00 9:57:41 am

[Mister Underhill]

<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Haunting Spirit
Posts: 78</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE>
Re: First Editions

Boy, thanks for the help, Mithadan. Tolkien-ites are such nice people!

No, unfortunately, I'm not eyeing a prospective first edition buy. More like research on an article Kittle has invited me to write -- a counterpoint on &quot;The Olog-hai Question&quot; (see the &quot;Who knows their trolls?&quot; thread if you have an evening to burn). I'm trying to find out if the Appendix F ref to them is original material or maybe something the prof added later after he got letters asking, &quot;Hey, I thought trolls couldn't stand the sun!&quot; Or words to that effect. It's a big help to know (almost) for certain that the ref is original material. My UT is buried in storage somewhere, unfortunately, but I seem to remember some note in there, too, about Tolkien saying he wished he hadn't promised Appendices, because the slim amount of room he'd be able to spend on them wouldn't be enough to satisfy anyone, especially himself, but I wasn't sure if this was in reference to a revised edition or if it was sometime after &quot;Fellowship&quot; and &quot;Two Towers&quot; were out but before &quot;Return&quot; had been published.

</p>

[Mithadan]

<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Wight
Posts: 162</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE>
Re: First Editions

Good luck. You might want to e-mail the guy who maintains the LoTR Collectors site and ask him. There's a link on that page for e-mail.

--Mithadan--
"The Silmarils with living light
were kindled clear, and waxing bright
shone like stars that in the North
above the reek of earth leap forth." </p>

[burrahobbit]

<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hidden Spirit
Posts: 466</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE>
Re: First Editions

That was the 1600th post in The Books.

What's a burrahobbit got to do with my pocket, anyways?</p>

[Mithadan]

Since there appears to be some slight interest in this topic, I'm bringing this thread back up to the top.

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Since I do own a first edition set, I'll add a couple of pointers.

My set (late impressions from the early 1960s) include the earlier appendices, but not the index or the sections on languages and calendars. These were added to the Second Edition, and, I think, to some of the American editions published between the British revisions. Tolkien simply hadn't completed them by the time he and his publishers decided to release RotK.

Just in case someone does think they've got hold of a first edition, here's a very brief description.

The first edition was printed by George Allan and Unwin in the U.K. in three hardback volumes, bound in red cloth. The dust-jackets are a pale cream in colour, with a design in the centre of the front cover depicting a ring with a red eye glaring through it, and the One Ring's inscription wrapped around it in red Feanorian script. The title of each volume and the author's name were printed in red and black inks, but were varied so that The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King have titles in black, whereas The Two Towers has its title in red. The Two Towers also differed in the printing on its spine, in which the colours of the title and author's name (on the other two volumes, a black title with the author's name in red) were inverted.

The first edition maps are coloured, folded inserts in red and black ink, initialled by Christopher Tolkien, and they incorporate some variant spellings (such as 'Kirith Ungol' in the map to RotK). The volumes should also announce themselves to have been printed on octavo (8vo) paper, and bear prices on the jacket flaps of 21s per volume and 63s for the set (Tolkien wasn't wrong about the price: a guinea was well over a week's wages for some people in 1954). More importantly, they contain a completely different author's preface and will bear on the frontispiece the entire printing history up to the time of their own impression. Anything other than a first impression will announce the dates of subsequent printing runs of the first edition.

If you have a copy of RotK with slipped text, it's a rare copy and might be worth a bit, and first impression volumes in excellent condition are also very valuable. If the volumes are signed, the value is exponentially greater. Even a late impression set in good condition is still not cheap, so this is not the edition to be using for day-to-day reference work.

I've rambled on long enough, especially since most of this is available elsewhere. Here's a picture of a first edition set in top condition.

p.s. Bump.

[narfforc]

When I am lucky enough to:

1. Have the money.

2. Find a set in such good order.

I will use your excellent descriptions, thank you.

I thought I was lucky (I have 57 different copies of LotR).

P.S Where do you live and what type of burglar alarm have you got, please?

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

I live in Bar-en-Danwedh, as announced in my location. For a burglar alarm I'm using a string of tin cans tied to my right big toe. Oh, and I keep a loaded blunderbuss under my pillow. I should also mention that I've taken the precaution of coating the pages in a strychnine solution.

By the way, my set isn't worth a fraction of what was being asked for the collection I linked to. All the volumes are from quite late print runs, it's not signed and the jackets are discoloured (I think by tobacco smoke). I have only two copies of LotR, one of which is a cheaper hardback; I have been meaning to buy a copy of the 50th anniversary edition, though.

[narfforc]

Yes I saw a set here (UK) going on ebay for about £4,500, my car looked at one point like it was going to sold, but the thought of getting on the Omnibus with mortals filled me with loathing.


P.S Do you have anyone to house-sit when on vacation, are you a one dwarf sub-species and don't have any family left, I would like to volunteer, I won't need paying............................................ ....................and I have just bought some heavy-duty rubber gloves to clean out your house with.

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by The Squatter of Amon Rûdh

By the way, my set isn't worth a fraction of what was being asked for the collection I linked to. All the volumes are from quite late print runs, it's not signed and the jackets are discoloured (I think by tobacco smoke).

Nonetheless, I was quite surprised at what you paid for them, going by the newspaper story from the bookseller, which you linked to us once in chat. Assuming that link wasn't hacked.

The maps are a very attractive feature. It is a delight to be able to open them out to a larger size, although as I recall we didn't have a great deal of opportunity to pull them out much at the Bird and Baby.