Old Books

[aldesign]

Ok guys, y'all know that Tolkiens works are very old, but how old are your coppies of LOTR, SIM, HOBB, etc...

All my LOTR, and Hobbit are brand new,
but i searched through the book case, and found a gem of a book...
...an old edition of the Simarillion published 1978,

now.. tolkien died in 1973 (i think), so my edition isnt that old, can anybody beat it? im shure they can......


andy

[Ñólendil]

I have a paperback edition of the Hobbit from the 50s. It's pretty beat up.

[aldesign]

im surprised there arnt more replies for this thread

though it would be quite interesting to hardcore 'Ringers'

shurely ur parents have read some tolkien books guys???
(actualy, mine havent, ooops!)

andy

[KGamgee]

Beat this.....
Hobbit 1937
The Two Towers 1965
The others are all newer copies.
~KGamgee~

[olorin]

1937? You have a first edition?

[Yazad]

How 'bout...

1938 Hobbit (American 1st edition/1st impression)

1956(?) 2nd edition, eighth impression? of The Hobbit.

1963(ish) American Hobbit (2nd Edition)

A set around 1962 of Fellowship, Two Towers, Return of the King (UK First editions, around 12th impression)

First US printing of the Silmarillion (1978?)

First US printing of Unfishes Tales (1980)

First US printing of the Collector's Edition (1974?)

All hardcovers, of course.

Bank account: quite empty.

Yazad

[Menelvagor]

Wow, Yazad, I'm inpressed! :o

somehow I managed to have the same edition of all my books (Hobbit, 3 vol LotR, Sil, UT) their all 1982, not too good, but hey...

[Laurelyn]

~Copy of the Hobbit the used to be my Grandfather's (1941, I think; not entirely sure)
~ My dad's LotR set, 1967
~New LotR Set, new Sil
~Hardcover Hobbit from 1995-ish

[Starr Polish]

The Hobbit, 1966 version. don't own any other LOTR books, will most likely get new ones :(

[aldesign]

Yazad thats amazing, :eek:

a collection that has set the standards, and i doubt i will ever beat, even after some frantic searching over the next few weeks
ill keep u posted on any of my discovers.

andy

cheers to everyone for their replys

[Yazad]

Happy to impress! Unfortunately they're not all in the best of shape.

This is the type of thing that happens when you get an idea stuck in your head when you're 11. When you finally start your career you're still thinking about buying the stuff you wanted when you were younger. It's fun actually. Luckily I picked up most of the items well before the hype for the new movies started. *whew*

Incidentally, I did post a link to a site where I put up images of Chapter 5 of the first edition of The Hobbit a couple years ago. Here's the link again for anyone who's interested...

http://www.geocities.com/dnvillalpando/riddles/riddles.html

Yazad

[Tanoliel]

Originally posted by Starr Polish
The Hobbit, 1966 version. don't own any other LOTR books, will most likely get new ones :(
Hey, Starr--check out used bookstores. Even if the copies aren't too old...they'll look old! :) Okay...sue me....but I love old books.
-tano

[Nameless]

My Dad had an old copy of the Hobbit..... Then everyone in the family read it to pieces..... literally!! :(

Now we all have our own 'newer' versions! :p

[luinilwen]

well all the copies (hobbit, fotr, tt, rotk and silmariliion) i have are first edition in australia, but unfortunately they're not mine. :(

this weekend i'm getting my own set (yippee) with those nice shiny black covers. **** (i mean gosh) i really wish i could afford hardback... *sigh*

but last weekend i picked up a 1979 (i think) edition of farmer giles of ham & the adventures of tom bom at the markets for 4 bucks! woohoo!

[emplynx]

aldesign-the sil was published after Tolkien's death-you have an very old copy!

[aldesign]

WOOOO thanxs emplynx

to luinilwen, i have those black shiny ones, but brought them all seperatly, not in a box set.

andy

[RosieCotton]

Mine are only 1982, but my brother has editions from the 50's.
~Rosie~

[Earenya]

So far:

TH- hardcover '66

TH- pb '73

FotR - paperback '65

TTT- pb '73

(I need pb '65 and/or '73 tRotK!!)

Silmarillion- hc '77

LotR hc trilogy- 70-something (its at home, I'm unsure exactly)


SO, I love old books, and I'd like a complete set of the paperback triliogy in '65 & '73- any ideas? Since the movie has been out my favorite old bookstore is constantly raided and Im having a hard time finding these.

[Liviaine]

All mine are new, but my school library has an original copy of The Silmarillion.

[Ringil]

Paperbacks:

FOTR - October 1965, Ballantine, First Printing
TTT - 1965, Ace, Unauthorized Edition
ROTK - 1965, Ace, Unauthorized Edition
The Hobbit - December 1965, Ballantine, Fifth Printing
The Tolkien Reader - September 1966, Ballantine, First Edition

Hardbacks:

LOTR - 3 Volumes, Houghton Mifflin Co, Second Edition
The Hobbit - HMCo, Collector's Edition
The Road Goes Ever On - 1978, HMCo, Second Edition
The Silmarillion - 1977, HMCo, First American Edition, First Printing
Unfinished Tales - 1980, HMCo, First American Edition
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien - 1981, HMCo
HoME - Vols I-XII, HMCo

I have nostalgic memories associated with my paperback copies of LOTR.

In late 1965, I was browsing the small paperback book section at the local discount superstore (roughly similar to a Kmart today). It consisted of a couple of those revolving wire racks that are now generally used for greeting cards. I was looking for science fiction when I noticed several books by J.R.R. Tolkien. They'd just been published in paperback. Judging by the different covers, there must have been six or seven different books (or so I thought at first). I'd never heard of Tolkien, but decided to give one a try. There were two versions of each of the 3 LOTR books, one published by Ballantine Books and one by Ace Books. The Ballantine books were 95 cents each and the Ace books were 75 cents each. That was a lot of money for a paperback in those days; a typical paperback cost 40 or 50 cents. Yeah, I know, I'm as old as the Ents, or maybe Bombadil, compared to most of the posters on the forum. Anyway, I got the Ace version of FOTR. Although I thought it started kinda slowly, I was hooked by the time Frodo left Hobbiton. I read all weekend and finished it. The next day, I rushed back to the store to buy the rest of the trilogy. In my confusion over the different covers, I ended up buying the Ace version of TTT and ROTK, as well as the Ballantine version of FOTR. When I discovered that I had two copies of FOTR, I gave the Ace version to my brother, and I don't know what became of it. That's why I have a mixed set of paperbacks.

The Ace version was unauthorized. It was printed without Tolkien's permission (he noted this in the Ballantine edition), apparently because of a loophole in the copyright law. After a short time, Ace and Ballantine came to an agreement, and the Ace version was no longer published. I imagine they're somewhat rare. Another interesting thing is that the Appendices in the Ace version differ slightly from the authorized Ballantine edition. For instance, Aragorn dies in F.A. 100 in the Ace book, rather than F.A. 120; and the Index is not included in the Ace version.

At the time I read LOTR and The Hobbit, I didn't know a single person who'd even heard of Tolkien. I was hooked for life and waited over a decade for the Silmarillion to be published.

Oh well, time to end this walk down memory lane before everyone falls asleep (those of you who haven't already).

[aldesign]

I be back

and ive searched for some books,

but as its winter, the Jumble sales are a bit low at the moment.

on a side note my CounterStrike works now!!

andy