That is a very strange title/copyright folio. Why on earth does a US-printed edition mention the Berne Convention? Weird.

Predictable Matt wrote:

P.S. I'm putting this up for sale in the Facebook group as I've just bought a first impression and my (sadly limited) shelf space doesn't warrant two HMCO first editions!

Too slow! Glad it sold already while I was asleep though.

Urulókë wrote:

Too slow! Glad it sold already while I was asleep though.

I just did the same thing... but at least I discovered the facebook group, so that's a plus!

Urulókë wrote:

Predictable Matt wrote:

P.S. I'm putting this up for sale in the Facebook group as I've just bought a first impression and my (sadly limited) shelf space doesn't warrant two HMCO first editions!

Too slow! Glad it sold already while I was asleep though.

Thank you! Yes these Tolkien collectors are quick out the gate

Tiny Turtle wrote:

Urulókë wrote:

Too slow! Glad it sold already while I was asleep though.

I just did the same thing... but at least I discovered the facebook group, so that's a plus!

I only found out about it quite recently too!

oxonianus wrote:

That is a very strange title/copyright folio. Why on earth does a US-printed edition mention the Berne Convention? Weird.

I'm curious - why is it weird? (full disclosure - I haven't attempted to read up on the Berne Convention and am not familiar with it!)

The main reason I ask is that the reference to the Berne Convention doesn't seem to be unique to this copyright page - it appears for example on the stated 12th impression which Berelach posted on this thread.

Predictable Matt wrote:

I'm curious - why is it weird? (full disclosure - I haven't attempted to read up on the Berne Convention and am not familiar with it!)

https://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/summary_berne.html

Info on what the Berne Convention was and is.

Mr. Underhill wrote:

Predictable Matt wrote:

I'm curious - why is it weird? (full disclosure - I haven't attempted to read up on the Berne Convention and am not familiar with it!)

https://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/summary_berne.html

Info on what the Berne Convention was and is.

Thank you! So I see that the USA only joined in the 1980s so oxonianus is that why it's weird - as these publications predated that?

Someone else may be able to give better info on this but my understanding was that the US didn't joined the Berne Convention because it would mean a change to copyright laws in the US which went too far for them at that time. In the US copyright had to be renewed but the Berne changed that. Authors and publishers protected under the Berne Convention were then protected in the US too, BUT copyrights that were originally signed in the US weren't.

Yes, that it appears in so early a publication was surprising in the dark of night.

In the light of day, it isn't so strange: the literary work itself originated in a signatory nation of the Berne Convention.