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The Chronicles' different publishers

Posted: Wed May 26, 2004 2:55 am
by Cheval
I happened to notice that my hardcover books of the First Chronicles
are published by different companies, other than DelRay.
Lord Foul's Bane = Nelson Doubleday, Inc. copyright - 1977
The Illearth War = Holt, Rinehart, and Winston copyright - 1977
The Power That Preserves = Ballantine Books copyright - 1977
(Yes, the year in all three are printed as 1977)

All the paperback books and the Second Chronicles hardcovers are all DelRay.
(The Wounded Land = copyright - June 1980
The One Tree = copyright - April 1982
White Gold Wielder = copyright - April 1983)

I thought that SRD dealt with DelRay from the very beginning.
Also, I think that I read somewhere that the First Chronicles
took a few years from book-to-book to write.
In fact, I remember when the Power That Preserves was released...
AFTER reading Lord Foul's Bane.

Can someone shed some light on this for me?

(I would also like to know if there are any other publishers listed
in other members' TCTC books)

Posted: Wed May 26, 2004 10:01 am
by Romeo
I believe when the Chronicles were first published, Ballantine/DelRey only did paperbacks. So they sold the hardcover rights for the First Chronicles to Holt (and Doubleday produced the book club edition - the one with the ghostly Lord Foul - more like a possessed Shmoo for those who remember that short lived Saturday morning cartoon - and a right hand on TC that is clearly not "halved"). But they eventually got into the hardcover business, so DelRey published the Second Chronicles themselves in hardcover.

The First Chronicles were entirely finished when Steve signed with DelRey. There was still editing to be done on them, but they all came out right after each other. I think there was a year or two between the books in the Second Chronicles (since they were not even started when the First Chronicles were published - DelRey talked Steve into the second series, and at the same time he conceived the idea for the Final Chronicles).

I think those are the only US publishers, but there are definitely lots of others in other countries that published his books. Some day when that lazy bum that Steve calls a webmaster gets off his duff, he might post some of the ones that were passed to him eons ago onto the official site's background/publication page. :-)

Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 2:08 am
by Cheval
"Thanx"... The cover (jacket) that you desribed
is the picture on LFB. The paperback has the Quest
confronting the Ward of Warning on the bridge
inside Mount Thunder.
The hardcover copies actually don't have anything
on the cover. They all have jackets, although,
I like the pictures on the paperbacks better than
the jacket pictures.
(Opposite for the 2nd Chronicles)