SV: [HPforGrownups] Sorta OT: Re: LOTR Publication history

[Peg Kerr]

No: HPFGUIDX 7039

Sara Ludwig wrote:

> It may be no error at all. If the copyright rules are still the same as when Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Ring then the author must change some words for the American edition!!
> catrina
>

A fuller explanation: From Humphrey Carpenter's _Tolkien: A Biography_ here's a little of the history of that:

Sales of _The Hobbit_ and _The Lord of the Rings_ continued to rise steadily, but there was no drastic change in the pattern until 1965.  Early in that year it was learnt that an
American publisher who appeared not to suffer from an excess of scruples was planning to issue an unauthorized paperback edition of the _The Lord of the Rings_, almost certainly
without paying royalties to Tolkien.  Because of the confused state of American copyright at that time, the publisher doubtless thought that he could do this with impunity. . . The
only way to save the situation was for Tolkien's authorized American publishers, Houghton Mifflin, to issue their own paperback as quickly as possible, and this they planned to do,
in collaboration with Ballantine Books.  But in order to register this new edition as copyright, they would have to make a number of textual changes so that the book was technically
"new."

I'm not sure if this "confused state of American copyright" so referenced is the same?  Heidi?

The Humphrey Carpenter Tolkien bio is pretty good, btw, if you're interested.

Peg