onthetrail wrote:

I love Kelos. Such a great name. It is not related but the flower celosia (one of my favourites) comes from the Greek Keleos meaning burning. Years ago I was hiking with a friend and we came to a flowing river over rocks and it reminded me of Kelos, the sun made the water look like it was on fire as it washed through the rocks and the imagery instantly made me think of Kelos. And the next flower I noticed was celosia.

Celosia is also very common around Bloemfontein and its leaf can be eaten.

A complete side track, I apologise.

That’s such a lovely story. ?

Eorl wrote:

onthetrail wrote:

I love Kelos. Such a great name. It is not related but the flower celosia (one of my favourites) comes from the Greek Keleos meaning burning. Years ago I was hiking with a friend and we came to a flowing river over rocks and it reminded me of Kelos, the sun made the water look like it was on fire as it washed through the rocks and the imagery instantly made me think of Kelos. And the next flower I noticed was celosia.

Celosia is also very common around Bloemfontein and its leaf can be eaten.

A complete side track, I apologise.

That’s such a lovely story. ?

Thank you Earl

Hope you are safe and well in the current times.

HarperCollin's have asked the printer to look into this issue with the Map and Tarlang's Neck to stop it happening again.

They have also said that if you do have a copy with this error, you can return it for a replacement from the bookseller who supplied it, this could be problematic, you have to arrange with the seller to return the item, and make sure that it is well packaged, and then wait for them to send a new copy, which may or may not have exactly the same issue.

I have the issue on my copies, but will not be returning them, just happy that this is being addressed for future printings.

Does anyone if Houghton Mifflin's Tolkien books have ever had errors or mistakes like this?? I get that the HarperCollins are more 'collectible', though I'm curious of the quality of overall printing, for any Tolkien book, from the other publisher

insurrbution wrote:

Does anyone if Houghton Mifflin's Tolkien books have ever had errors or mistakes like this?? I get that the HarperCollins are more 'collectible', though I'm curious of the quality of overall printing, for any Tolkien book, from the other publisher

Printing errors just happen sometimes, for any printing press (which is different from the publisher). This current edition in question was printed by GPS Group in Slovenia, for example. Houghton Mifflin editions don't indicate who printed them (just "in the USA") but I am sure there have been small defects every now and then just because you have machinery assembling (tens of) thousands of copies with hundreds of pages and sometimes things just don't end up perfect.

It is nice (and pretty standard) that the publisher is offering exchanges for defective copies, through the booksellers that the defective copies were purchased through.

In this particular case, I don't consider this small smudge to be worth exchanging - I mostly shared the picture to see if all first impressions have it or not, and clearly not all do. I am glad that HarperCollins is checking the supply line to make sure future printings don't have this particular issue.

Urulókë wrote:

insurrbution wrote:

Does anyone if Houghton Mifflin's Tolkien books have ever had errors or mistakes like this?? I get that the HarperCollins are more 'collectible', though I'm curious of the quality of overall printing, for any Tolkien book, from the other publisher

Printing errors just happen sometimes, for any printing press (which is different from the publisher). This current edition in question was printed by GPS Group in Slovenia, for example. Houghton Mifflin editions don't indicate who printed them (just "in the USA") but I am sure there have been small defects every now and then just because you have machinery assembling (tens of) thousands of copies with hundreds of pages and sometimes things just don't end up perfect.

It is nice (and pretty standard) that the publisher is offering exchanges for defective copies, through the booksellers that the defective copies were purchased through.

In this particular case, I don't consider this small smudge to be worth exchanging - I mostly shared the picture to see if all first impressions have it or not, and clearly not all do. I am glad that HarperCollins is checking the supply line to make sure future printings don't have this particular issue.

Urulókë I agree, I think the smudge is so minor that it doesn't effect the overall quality. I don't have the error so maybe it's easier for me to pass it off but I'd certainly be happy to keep it if I did.

It's great that this is being addressed and yet again it is this site that highlights and makes the publisher aware of it.

I understand there being the odd COPY that has something wrong with it (ie, page printed upside down, to give an example) but was thinking more about an entire print run.

That's a very minor printing defect - I wouldn't be losing a moment's sleep over it.

insurrbution wrote:

I understand there being the odd COPY that has something wrong with it (ie, page printed upside down, to give an example) but was thinking more about an entire print run.

Happens all the time! Publishing, like all other industries, is run by fallible humans...

I remember getting a book signed by Harlan Ellison once, and (for the particular edition I had in hand), he flipped to the middle of the book, took his sharpie and corrected a misprint, then went on a five minute rant about how he was going to correct every copy someday, one by one!

Urulókë wrote:

insurrbution wrote:

I understand there being the odd COPY that has something wrong with it (ie, page printed upside down, to give an example) but was thinking more about an entire print run.

Happens all the time! Publishing, like all other industries, is run by fallible humans...

I remember getting a book signed by Harlan Ellison once, and (for the particular edition I had in hand), he flipped to the middle of the book, took his sharpie and corrected a misprint, then went on a five minute rant about how he was going to correct every copy someday, one by one!

Tolkien did that as well for the signed copy of The Hobbit that he sent to Arthur Ransome, as well as signing the book, he hand corrected the mistakes that he was aware of