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Variations in the Shaping of Middle-earth Dustwrapper |
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Introduction Introduction
Differences between the dustwrappers
Things get more complicated when we look at the front flap. Here there are three variants:
There are also two variants of the rear flap:
For the lower cover of the dustwrapper there are again three variants:
Summary of the variations
An explanation? "The jacket without printed price (variants 2 and 3) was intended for book club use. Allen & Unwin seem to have printed more volumes than jackets for their own edition, and more jackets than volumes for the book club edition." Whether Wayne had documentary evidence for this explanation, or if it was just a supposition, is uncertain, but it seems to be contradicted by the copies seen. Why would Allen & Unwin print two types of dustwrappers for Guild Publishing? i.e. some State 4 ('Guild Publishing' on the spine and 'CN 9286' on the rear flap) and some State 3 ('Allen & Unwin' on the spine and 'ISBN 0 04 823279 3' on the rear flap). In addition, the survey for this article found no copies of the 1st Impression of the Guild Publishing edition in Allen & Unwin dustwrappers. The Guild Publishing editions of volumes 1-5 of the History of Middle-earth series are all easily identified by the 'Guild Publishing' branding on the dustwrapper, binding and preliminary pages. Why would they use A&U jackets on the Guild edition just for this one title? If the dustwrapper without the printed price and ISBN/barcode was not for book club use then why was it produced? Other impressions Allen & Unwin, 2nd Impression, 1986 - Not seen. Does not exist? Allen & Unwin, 3rd Impression, 1987 - Not seen. Does not exist? Unwin Hyman, 4th Impression, 1988 - Dustwrapper has Unwin Hyman logo on spine, ISBN on rear flap but no ISBN/barcode on the lower cover. Probably had a printed price on front flap, but copies seen are price-clipped. Guild Publishing, 2nd Impression, 1986 - Copies seen are in an A&U binding, most in what appears to be a price-clipped State 1 dustwrapper, and one other in a State 3 dustwrapper. One of these State 1 dustwrapper had an Unwin Hyman price sticker on the clipped front flap. In addition, an ex-library copy has been seen, rebound in dark red buckram with a State 1 dustwrapper. Guild Publishing, 3rd Impression, 1987 - State 4 dustwrapper. The hybrid A&U/Guild 2nd Impression appears to have been used by both publishers, explaining the lack of any 2nd Impression A&U copies. As no copies of the Guild Publishing 3rd Impression have been seen in A&U dustwrappers, it seems probable that it was only used by Guild Publishing. If nothing else, these reprints show that the production process for this particular volume was not a simple matter. Another explanation? A - No printed price and no printed ISBN/barcode (States 2 and 3) A - the same style as the dustwrapper for both volumes of The Book of Lost Tales (1983-84) It may be that the first batch of dustwrappers was produced in the old style (A) in error, and when this was realised and a second batch of dustwrappers was required, this was printed in the new style (B). This second batch may have been due to an increase in the size of the print run. A&U only started putting the ISBN/barcode on the lower cover of hardcover books in 1985, so it seems feasible that the odd error or omission crept in - even by 1988 not all dustwrappers displayed the ISBN/barcode. Allen & Unwin seemingly decided to use the old format dustwrappers, converting some of them by adding the price label to the front flap and the ISBN/barcode label to the lower cover. Sufficient numbers of dustwrappers in both styles remained after the completion of the 1st Impression for them to be used on the hybrid A&U/Guild 2nd Impression.
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