The Lord of the Rings is a unique tome for many reasons: its "length and ambition, its strange combination of extreme conservatism and mythic recasting of modern dilemmas, its downright peculiarity of content. Additionally, the book is unusual not just in terms of content, but physically as well, with its tripartite division and extensive scholarly apparatus." (Ripp, 2005) Tolkien basically created a whole new world, with an extensive history, peoples, languages, genealogical breakdowns, and much much more. Originally in hardback form, the three parts that make up the trilogy were published separately by George Allen & Unwin in Europe "during 1954 and 1955, with USA rights going to Houghton Mifflin. It soon became apparent that both author and publishers had greatly underestimated the work’s public appeal." (Doughan, n.d.) The books were sold for $5.00 each with skepticism surrounding if readers would pay for such a lengthy endeavor. But buy it and read it, they did. It is speculated that Tolkien never really had intentions to put the book out in paperback form, but that all changed when confusion over United States copyright law led to an act of piracy in the mid-1960's. Ripp states, “…1965 permanently altered the American public’s awareness of Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings, when Ace Books took advantage of what Tolkien’s biographer termed ‘the confused state of American copyright law at that time’ to publish a mass-market paperback edition of the book without its author’s knowledge or consent.” (2005) According to Section 16 of Title 17 of the United States Code (in 1952), books written outside of the United States were permitted to be imported provided that the publisher presented a copy to the American Registry of Copyrights within 6 months of publication and applied for ad interim status which gave 5 years under limited copyright protection. Additionally, only 1500 copies could be imported to adhere to the ad interim protection. To achieve full copyright protection complete manufacture within the United States had to take place within the 5 year period. "Section 16 of Title 17 of the United States Code was very specific about what constituted complete manufacture: copies shall be printed from type set within the limits of the United States, either by hand or by the aid of any kind of typesetting machine, or from plates made within the limits of the United States from type set therein, or, if text be produced by lithographic process, or photoengraving process, then by a process wholly performed within the limits of the United States, and the printing of the text and binding of the said book shall be performed within the limits of the United States. (17 U.S.C. §16, 1952)" (Ripp, 2005) Houghton Mifflin printed and distributed hardback copies of The Lord of the Rings trilogy pieces in 1954, 1955 and 1956 respectively followed by a series of reprints, which in turn exceeded the 1500 copy limitation. "Moreover, Houghton Mifflin also failed to set and print the book at its own Riverside Press within five years (the initial term of ad interim copyright) of publication" (Ripp, 2005) which negated the copyright protection. Additionally, Houghton Mifflin printed their copies without any consistency in the "notice of copyright" within the books and also chose not to seek out ad interim copyright over the third installment of Tolkien's work. Many factors came in to play in the "vast and complex web" (Drout 2007) that is The Lord of the Rings publishing history.
Enter Ace Books who claimed the United States had lost its copyright claims and proceeded to publish a paperback version of Tolkien's epic fiction work for 75 cents a piece. Ace did not seem to care for quality, simply pumping out a consumable quantity of the paperback version, "Ace simply photoreproduced the appendices from the Houghton Miffl in edition, with the result that page references referred to the original hardbound text rather than to the Ace edition. Ace also reprinted from Houghton Miffl in both the promise of an index of names in the fi rst volume and the apology in the third for its omission." (Ripp, 2005) This proved to be quite altering in regards to accessibility and affordability of Tolkien's book to the masses. Tolkien retaliated by declaring Ace Books' version a pirated publication and partnered with Ballantine to produce an authorized paperback version which contained new materials and sold for 95 cents per copy. However, by this time Ace's mistake had placed Tolkien in the hands of a new group of readers causing a huge influx in purchases of the book - the country's youth - nearly a decade after its initial publication. "Rightly or wrongly, contemporary accounts of the sales surge handcuffed it to the collegiate counter-culture." (Foster, 2003) Tolkien himself acknowledges the Ace debacle as beneficial stating in a 1965 letter, "I am getting such an advertisement from the rumpus that I expect my ‘authorized’ paper-back will in fact sell more copies than it would, if there had been no trouble or competition.” (Ripp, 2005) In 1992, the copyright conundrum was finally settled in the case of Eisen, Durwood & Company, Inc., d/b/a Ariel Books v. Christopher R. Tolkien, et al. when a US District Court judge ruled that Tolkien's original copyrights remain valid. (Drout, 2007)
References:
Drout, M. (2007). J.R.R. Tolkien encyclopedia: Scholarship and critical assessment. New York: Routledge.
Foster, M. (2003). An Unexpected Party. Christian HIstory. Issue 78.
Joseph Ripp. "Middle America Meets Middle-Earth: American Discussion and Readership of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of The Rings, 1965-1969." Book History 8.1 (2005): 245-286. Project MUSE. Web. 16 Apr. 2015. <https://muse.jhu.edu/>.
Image: By Bjarki S (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
Drout, M. (2007). J.R.R. Tolkien encyclopedia: Scholarship and critical assessment. New York: Routledge.
Foster, M. (2003). An Unexpected Party. Christian HIstory. Issue 78.
Joseph Ripp. "Middle America Meets Middle-Earth: American Discussion and Readership of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of The Rings, 1965-1969." Book History 8.1 (2005): 245-286. Project MUSE. Web. 16 Apr. 2015. <https://muse.jhu.edu/>.
Image: By Bjarki S (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons