Unwin PB 1987 Reissued Edition Impression question

I've no idea of the reality (i.e. what UH technically meant by a reissue), but reading the copyright page & taking it at face value, the 1987 impression is definitely the 5th impression of the 1986 "Re-issue".

1st imp. - 1986 Reissue
2nd imp. - 1986 1st reprint
3rd imp. - 1986 2nd reprint
4th imp. - 1986 3rd reprint
5th imp. - 1987 (4th reprint)

Deagol may not be disputing this interpretation; he may just not believe there were three reprints based on information gleaned from the GA&U archive during various research trips.

He also said something similar in regard to the 1983 Pb Ed. of The Silmarillion; however, since I have all the impressions stated on the copyright page, I soon corrected him on that count! ;)

BH

Thanks very much Khamûl! That's what I assumed. I suppose it's just yet another error in impression reprint dates. If (as Deagol states) the 3rd impression should be 1987, then surely the 4th impression should be as well.

Actually I'm wondering if perhaps the statement of the new edition sometimes threw off UH, or whomever was doing the counting. In this copy of The Hobbit (50th Anniversary) the impression number should be counted as 21, with the Fourth edition 1981 being the first, followed by 20 listed reprints. But was there actually a reprint in 1981? Deagol states the 2nd impression as being 1982 and the first impression thus of the 50th Anniversary being the 20th impression 1987 (the first reprint in 1987). If we assume that the statement "Reprinted 1981" is used for the first impression (perhaps considering it a reprint of the book as a whole and not considering the edition change) then the numbering makes sense. It would make sense of the error in RotK above as well. Of course, this wouldn't really be correct, the new edition/reissue statement should be counted as the first impression, but it could account for the error.

...or more likely, maybe I just have no idea what I'm talking about

I'm not sure about this specific example, but I don't think that's what Deagol's saying. I think he's saying the copyright page is in error, and the evidence points to whatever it is he's said. So he's not really looking at these copyright pages & seeing something you're not; he's just saying they're plain wrong, based on some other piece of evidence, or his reading of these copyright pages based on other known incidences of GA&U/UH making a mess of them. In this case, according to the copyright page, "reprinted 1981" would denote the 2nd impression, of the Fourth edition, of 1981.

BH

Ah I see. Thanks for that. So I guess, when in doubt, I should trust his site.

Or not, when it comes to the 1983 Pb Silmarillion impression list...

BH

Christina and I have most of the progression of printings of this issue from 1986 to 1987, and the copyright pages bear out what I understand of Allen & Unwin's practice at the time.

The first of these, when the 'fourth edition' of 1981 (a reprint of the reset 'third edition' of 1979) was reissued in the 'Unicorn' series with new cover art by Roger Garland and an added cover device, is indicated on the copyright page as 'Re-issued in Unicorn 1986', with nothing further (thus the first printing in this sequence).

The next printing has: 'Re-issued in Unicorn 1986 | Reprinted 1986' (thus the second printing in this sequence).

The next has: 'Re-issued in Unicorn 1986 | Reprinted 1986 (twice)' (thus the third printing in this sequence).

We don't have a copy with 'Reprinted 1986 (three times)', but we do have the next (the fifth in the sequence -- always assuming that the publisher got the numbering correct, and didn't skip any), which has 'Re-issued 1986 | Reprinted 1986 (three times), 1987'. By this time, the 'Unicorn' cover device was gone, the series apparently having been discontinued as a marketing effort, which would explain why it has 'Re-issued 1986' and not 'Re-issued in Unicorn 1986'.

Unless something has changed since I did bibliographic work there, e.g. records having been found and transferred from HarperCollins, the Allen & Unwin archive at Reading can't come into it for books of this date: the records end long before 1987.

Wayne