The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings
Taiwan: Chung Shan Book Co., Ltd., 1972.
1972 TAIWANESE 'PIRATED' TOLKIEN — WITH DUST JACKET AND FOLDING MIDDLE-EARTH MAP
An unusual English-language pirated Taiwanese edition of The Fellowship of the Ring, reproducing Tolkien's revised Second Edition text and retaining the large folding map of Middle-earth.
THE TAIWAN IMPRINT.
The Chinese imprint identifies this as the Taiwan edition, printed on February 1, 1972, with an original price of NT$50. Although it names George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. and carries the licensing language of the American edition, this was a Taiwanese pirated edition, produced during the period when Western books were widely reproduced in Taiwan without authorization from their copyright holders.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: A DISTINCTIVE TAIWAN ISSUE.
Issued in an orange, black, and yellow pictorial dust jacket identified on the front as the Revised Edition. Octavo hardcover in natural beige cloth with title and author stamped in silver on the spine. Text in English. Chinese-language Taiwan publication statement bound at the rear. Large folding map of Middle-earth printed in black and red. The dust jacket reproduces the familiar Allen & Unwin Second Edition design, with Tolkien's Ring device on the rear panel and publisher's descriptive text on the flap.
CONDITION: VERY GOOD IN A GOOD JACKET. Bindings tight and square. Text clean with light, even age-toning. Minor offsetting to the pastedowns. Moderate shelf handling wear. Dust jacket unpriced, with faded spine, light handling wear, and a fold near the front spine edge. Jacket now protected in a clear Mylar sleeve. Folding map present and clean, with expected folds.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SIGNIFICANCE : A DIFFERENT ROAD TO MIDDLE-EARTH—MIDDLE-EARTH REPRINTED IN TAIWAN.
By 1972, The Lord of the Rings had become an international publishing phenomenon, creating a ready market for the English-language books produced by Taiwan's flourishing reprint industry. This Taiwanese Fellowship of the Ring reproduces Tolkien's revised Second Edition text, introduced by George Allen & Unwin in 1966, together with the familiar jacket design and folding map.
A PIRATE EDITION WITH A PAPER TRAIL.
The Chinese imprint identifies the Taiwan edition as printed February 1, 1972, with an original price of NT$50. Although the book reproduces the names and copyright language of the Western publishers, it belongs to the period when Taiwanese firms routinely reproduced foreign books without authorization from their copyright holders. Chung Shan Book Co., associated with this edition, is independently documented as distributing pirated Western books in Taiwan during this same period.
These editions occupy an interesting corner of Tolkien collecting. They are not simply later reading copies, but artifacts of the extraordinary international demand for Tolkien and of a Taiwanese publishing trade that supplied inexpensive English-language editions outside the normal Western copyright system. Later Taiwan Tolkien editions were formally authorized, making these earlier 1972 issues particularly representative of that transitional publishing history.
SUBJECTS: J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, Middle-earth, fantasy literature, Taiwan publishing, high fantasy, epic fantasy.
Item #22430
Price: $125.00
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