Divergent publishing date for 2014 Alan Lee one volume edition?
24 May
2026-5-24 3:18:38 PM UTC
2026-5-24 3:18:38 PM UTC
I was spending my Sunday casually looking at Tolkien books on the second-hand market without any real desire to buy, and I came across something I did not quite understand. I am sure this is a simple thing for the experts here, but I found it very strange.
Someone was selling a one-volume Lord of the Rings with illustrations by Alan Lee (0007525540, blue cloth spine with plastic case) and I noticed that the publishing date seemed very different compared with my own edition.
I have an 11th printing (Rotolito, Italy) with a publishing date from 2014 (top), whereas the title from the seller as a 2nd printing (South China Printing Co) with a publishing date of 2005 (bottom).
Was the earlier printings sold as early as 2005? Or is that a date for the timepoint in which a particular revised version of the text was published for which the 60th anniversary corrections were made on top of? I was under the impression that this was 2004 for the 50th anniversary edition?
What is going on here?
Someone was selling a one-volume Lord of the Rings with illustrations by Alan Lee (0007525540, blue cloth spine with plastic case) and I noticed that the publishing date seemed very different compared with my own edition.
I have an 11th printing (Rotolito, Italy) with a publishing date from 2014 (top), whereas the title from the seller as a 2nd printing (South China Printing Co) with a publishing date of 2005 (bottom).
Was the earlier printings sold as early as 2005? Or is that a date for the timepoint in which a particular revised version of the text was published for which the 60th anniversary corrections were made on top of? I was under the impression that this was 2004 for the 50th anniversary edition?
What is going on here?
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