By
Stu
11 Aug, 2014
2014-8-11 8:12:57 AM UTC
Whilst browsing through one of my favourite books today, "JRR Tolkien -Artist and Illustrator", I was moved to wonder what kind of print runs the first impressions of the 1995 HarperCollins Hardback and subsequent 2004 HarperCollins Hardback revised edition had? I don't have the 2004 edition, but they don't seem to be terribly common (or possibly people just don't want to sell them).
Hoping that Findegil might be able to answer this one?
11 Aug, 2014
2014-8-11 8:49:10 AM UTC
I am looking for this book for quite some time. All editions I 've found were in bad condition or too expensive (>50£)
11 Aug, 2014
2014-8-11 3:20:11 PM UTC
We can't find that we were ever informed of the print runs of either edition - which isn't unusual. The publisher informs us, rather, in our royalty statements, how many copies have been sold. Even then, it's not a straightforward question of print runs, as the original hardback had UK and US editions (probably more copies of the latter), followed by trade paperbacks, and the UK trade paperback comprised some copies of the hardback, stripped and put into wrappers, and some copies of a new printing with a few corrections (see
TolkienBooks.net). Then HarperCollins decided to bring the work back into hardback in 2004, for the
Lord of the Rings 50th anniversary, anticipating demand; and recently, we encouraged Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to bring out a new reprint of their paperback edition, as we had been informed of sufficient demand for university course purposes.
If we had to make a guess, and it can be no more than that, we'd say that the original hardback had 25,000 copies (UK and US combined), and maybe 5,000 copies each of the trade paperback and of the 2004 hardback.
It is interesting that so few of the 2004 copies show up for sale. Could it be that some of those advertised secondhand as the 1995 edition in fact are the later edition?
Wayne & Christina
11 Aug, 2014
2014-8-11 11:10:20 PM UTC
Thanks for the comprehensive reply. There are plenty of HM copies for sale at any given time on Abe and proportionately fewer HC copies, suggestive that the original run was quite skewed in favour of the larger US market.
I think you might be correct about the later edition being mis-advertised as the earlier, or at least the stock photo is the wrong one. Indeed, there is a copy of the 2004 on Abe for $449 and the seller can't even be bothered to put the correct photo up!
12 Nov, 2022
2022-11-12 4:53:13 PM UTC
Can you show which book you mean please, I’m unfamiliar.
12 Nov, 2022
2022-11-12 4:54:33 PM UTC
Oh forget that ?, I know now.
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