An exempt thief writer - about J.R.R. Tolkien and 'The Lord of the Rings'

Among the reasons for the success there is also another unknown factor: the affair that accompanied the publication of the book in the United States

When The Lord of the Rings was published in 1954, sales were not encouraging: the first edition of the trilogy sold only a few thousand copies.

Fifty and more years later, 'The Lord of the Rings' is already considered one of the properties of the Iron Sheep of modern Western culture. From computer games to 'Harry Potter', the familiar 'Lord of the Rings' fingerprints can be seen everywhere. Over one hundred million copies of the work have been sold to date... When and why did this dramatic change in the history of the famous literary outlet take place?

Many words have been written about the reasons for the success of 'The Lord of the Rings'. The fictional world created by J.R.R. Tolkien was deep and rich almost without precedent in those days, and the plot itself deals with topics that have fascinated the audience since the days of ancient mythologies: brave friendship, the simple villager who saves the world, a king who proves himself worthy of royalty, and more.

But among these reasons there is also another, unknown factor: the affair that accompanied the publication of the book in the United States.

In the XNUMXs, Tolkien was a professor of literature and languages ​​at the University of Oxford in Great Britain, and one day he checked students' exams. It was a mind-numbingly boring assignment and so Tolkien was delighted to discover that in one of the tests the student skipped a question, leaving an entire page completely blank.

Out of a momentary impulse that he could not explain, Tolkien scribbled on the page the following sentence: "A boy in the earth lived a hobbit."

What, exactly, is a hobbit? Why does he live in the ground? Tolkien had no idea. The whole sentence just popped into his mind without explanation and Tolkien decided to continue developing the idea and try to explain to himself who that Hobbit was and what he was doing inside the hole.

Hobbits, Tolkien concluded, are human beings about a meter tall. Their legs are hairy, their ears are slightly pointed, and they like to wear colorful clothes. The hobbits are far from adventurous: they prefer to live peacefully in their underground homes and eat six meals a day.

This is the starting point of the plot of the book 'The Hobbit'. Its unexpected hero is Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who goes on an adventure with Gandalf, a mysterious and powerful wizard, and thirteen dwarves in order to recover the dwarves' treasure that was stolen by a real dragon. Bilbo, like all hobbits, is not exactly Chuck Norris - but during the journey he shows great courage and resourcefulness that help the group achieve its goal. Equally important, he manages to lay his hands on a magical ring that makes the wearer see and not be seen.

Tolkien read 'The Hobbit' to his children at the same time as the writing process, and in 1936 he sent it to George Allen & Unwin publishing house. Stanley Unwin, one of the heads of the publisher, gave the book to Ryan, his ten-year-old son, and Ryan really liked what he read. Unwin decided to publish the book.

'The Hobbit' was a great success. The reviews hailed it as one of the original and excellent children's books of its time, and sales were accordingly. Stanley Unwin went back to Tolkien and asked him for a sequel. Tolkien was happy to comply with the request and sent him a draft of a manuscript called 'The Silmarillion', which he had been working on even before he wrote 'The Hobbit'.

The problem was that The Silmarillion was… how to put it mildly… boring. When I tried to read The Silmarillion for the first time, as a teenage boy, I broke down before I even got to the middle. The Silmarillion is essentially a history book: a book that describes the events of Middle-earth, its tradition and the creatures that inhabit it. It is not a travel book or an adventure book, but almost a textbook.

The editors decided that the book was not successful enough, and the publisher rejected the manuscript. Unwin asked Tolkien to write something else - this time interesting, and preferably with Hobbits in it. Tolkien agreed, without a choice, and began writing The Lord of the Rings. The plot began to take shape in his mind while writing: in fact, when he wrote the first chapters the ring was not part of the story at all! Only later, when he was looking for a strong motive that would push his heroes on a long and dangerous journey, he remembered the ring that Bilbo had found in the previous book - and the rest, as they say, is history.

The atmosphere in 'The Lord of the Rings' is very different from that of 'The Hobbit'. Although 'The Hobbit' was not a children's book, or in any case not only for children, but it was funny and funny in many parts. The Lord of the Rings, on the other hand, is a much darker and darker book, full of emotional conflicts, moral dilemmas and brutal battles. It is also longer and more complex than The Hobbit: the plot is spread over six parts, each of which can be considered a book in its own right.

In 'The Lord of the Rings', we discover that the ring that Bilbo found is actually the key to the future of 'Middle Earth' as ​​a whole - the imaginary world in which the story takes place. Sauron, the Dark Lord, needs her to complete his plan to take over the world. Frodo, Bilbo's nephew, receives the ring and sets out on a dangerous journey to destroy it in Mordor, the seat of the Dark Lord. He is joined by Gandalf the Wizard, the knights Aragorn and Boromir, Gimli the Dwarf, and Gols the Elf. Together they fight against the forces of the evil Sauron, while in the background they are constantly being chased by Gollum - a deformed creature who once owned the ring, and is now unable to break away from its bewitching influence. Here are three fat books in ninety words.

The writing process of 'The Lord of the Rings' lasted over ten years. When the book was finally published in the fifties, the publisher decided to divide the monometallic work into three books, mainly for financial reasons: binding so many pages made the book considerably more expensive. The first and second volumes in the series were printed in only about three thousand copies each. The third volume was a greater success and was printed in... seven thousand copies. These are very modest numbers, even on the scale of the Israeli market - and even more so in the British book market.

The weak sales, along with the mixed reviews the book received in the newspapers, signaled a bleak future for The Lord of the Rings, to say the least. And as if to add insult to injury, there was someone who conspired to do Tolkien a great injustice, and rob him of the little royalties he could receive in return for his arduous effort.

In 1965, the book caught the eye of the people of the American book publisher 'Ace'. At 'Ace' they really wanted to distribute 'The Lord of the Rings' in the United States - but unfortunately for them, the rights to the series in North America had already been given to another publisher.

Ace did not give up, and managed to find a surprising loophole in the American copyright law. To be included in the copyright law, the book in question must be printed in the United States itself - but all existing copies of The Lord of the Rings, as it turns out, were printed and bound in England, and only then sent overseas. This fact turned The Lord of the Rings into a work in the public domain - that is, a work that anyone can print and sell as they wish, without paying royalties to the author.

And 'Ace' definitely printed... 150 thousand copies!

Tolkien and his publishers were furious, but could not force 'Ace' to stop selling the book, even in court. Tolkien launched a media attack against 'Ace' and asked his readers not to purchase the unapproved edition of the book. 'Ace' came under fire from all directions for its dirty exercise, and finally broke: the publishers agreed not to print new editions, and to pay Tolkien royalties for the books sold.

Ironically, it is precisely the vile act of 'Ace' that injected new life into 'The Lord of the Rings'.

First, all the copies printed until then were hardcover - which made the book more expensive on the one hand, and on the other hand also created a too serious and dry image for the work. Ace's books, on the other hand, were paperbacks and were therefore much more accessible to the general public both financially and mentally. Second, the scandal that accompanied the struggle between Tolkien and 'Ace' attracted the attention of the media and gave the book excellent free publicity. The result was a meteoric jump in sales of the book and its transformation into a bestseller that has not left the printing press ever since. As a bonus, the royalties paid by 'Ace' to Tolkien were higher than those paid by his publisher... and they made him a very rich man.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien passed away in 1973, when he was 81 years old. The legacy he left behind is powerful and the basic plot he weaved in 'The Lord of the Rings' still resonates in hundreds of computer games and fantasy books even today. The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy directed by Peter Jackson in the early XNUMXs gave the series a boost, exposing it to a young and new audience. The tremendous success of the last fifty years shows no signs of abating.

[Ran Levy is a science writer, and hosts the podcastMaking history!'- witness science, technology and history. ]