Marking the 5th on my calendar to be £30+PP poorer.

Khamûl wrote:

If you're able to re-confirm Merlin; is that correct, only 50 copies of the original ever made?!
That's a lot less than I thought.

In previous correspondence with Merlin it was listed as 300 copies though he was not sure. Prior to that it was 250 copies in an email to Khamûl, would be nice to get a definitive number

https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/n ... ASC&type=&mode=0&start=10

250 was the number I had heard -- though I have no idea what the source was.

Caudimordax wrote:

Marking the 5th on my calendar to be £30+PP poorer.

Have now added a reminder to my calendar and will keep a bank account and two credit cards at the ready starting 6 a.m. to get at least ONE copy.

Khamûl,

I've seen your extract of the email from Merlin and also the email from my colleague Gillian Bissell - apologies for the confusion. We've checked the file in the office and unfortunately, it's not clear how many copies of the original book were published. We think 50 but no more than 100 - but it is a guess! Merlin does remember that the book was printed for Rayner and that most were given away by him to former George Allen & Unwin employees and colleagues. The book wasn't offered for sale commercially. So sorry we can't be more specific. However, I can confirm that we are printing 300 copies of new reprint.

I could be wrong but I had it in my head for some reason (maybe read it somewhere or indeed on this forum) that this book was offered for sale through the Tolkien Society.

Am I wrong on this.

remy wrote:

I could be wrong but I had it in my head for some reason (maybe read it somewhere or indeed on this forum) that this book was offered for sale through the Tolkien Society.

Am I wrong on this.

You are correct, from Amon Hen #160 November 1999

remy
As I indicated in my previous post, we didn't sell the book and it wasn't offered by us for commercial sale. As the advert says, the book was published privately for Rayner by Merlin Unwin Books and obviously 20 copies were made available by Rayner to the Tolkien Society. However, as this wasn't handled by us, we don't have any records. So sorry!

Many thanks for all the info Merlin.

Very Much Appreciated by all here I am sure.

Yes, thank you very much for supplying this information, very much appreciated