Silmarillion 1st edition print runs

... and University Press...

thanks. I'd wondered who the other printers were.

The quick answer is...

Wayne states in Bibliography that the printers were working in batches of 50,000 copies, and that the intial "impression" was 200,000. There is the glaring problem of Billing existing in two separate states, and Clowes many more. How many of these constitute the intial impression, I don't know. But if we assume that first state copies by both Billing and Clowes, only, constitute the intial "impression" referred to by Wayne, then one could assume that each printed 100,000 copies. To begin with...

It's likely more complicated than this. I'm working on it...

thanks, Khamul.

This is the relevant paragraph from Hammond p. 220:

The first print order was for 100,000 copies. By the end of May 1977 booksellers' orders included 65,000 from overseas, and the print run was increased to 300,000. Later the order was raised to 325,000, and in September to 375,000. Several firms were commissioned to print the book, at one time four printers, working in blocks of 50,000 copies, to insure against a feared industrial action stopping production. The total of 375,000 copies before publication includes both export (Clowes) and domestic (Billings) copies as well as book club copies with the Book Club Associates imprint (printed by Clowes, in a similar binding and jacket). The initial impression seems to have been 200,000 copies (export and domestic combined), with two later impressions of 50,000 each and 75,000 for the book club. But with apparently continuous production, virtually identical sheets, and simultaneous (or near simultaneous) publication of all copies worldwide, it seems pointless to make much of a distinction.

I'd always worked on the assumption that the total first printing (all the states, all the printers) was 250,000 copies, but I don't know where I originally read that (or if I just imagined it).

Interesting to see that there were even more than that.

I wonder how many of them actually got read past the first chapter...

Stu wrote:

I'd always worked on the assumption that the total first printing (all the states, all the printers) was 250,000 copies, but I don't know where I originally read that (or if I just imagined it).

Interesting to see that there were even more than that.

I wonder how many of them actually got read past the first chapter...

Hahaha! Maybe half. I wonder how many are still out there without a faded DJ spine.

Mr. Underhill wrote:

Hahaha! Maybe half. I wonder how many are still out there without a faded DJ spine.

Not mine

Ugo Truffelli wrote:

Mr. Underhill wrote:

Hahaha! Maybe half. I wonder how many are still out there without a faded DJ spine.

Not mine

I have two A&U editions and one BCA edition and only one of the A&U editions is faded, so 2 out of 3 ain't bad!