Error in Stephen King's On Writing

[loftymuses]

Although this doesn't deserve an entire thread, I thought that for the sake of accuracy I should point it out.

On page 156 of On Writing, Stephen King refers to J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings as an "epic trilogy." It is, however, a single book. It was split into three volumes by the publishing company at the time to save money.

Since its release, it has been published also in one and seven volume sets; Tolkien referred to it himself as a single work.

[GNTLGNT]

Hmmm, carry the 8, multiply by 2 and add 5-Yep one sounds right!....

[JohnDalglish]

Hi,

Welcome to the MB, and keep posting!

But....

I'm afraid Sai King is right and you're (partly) wrong. While LotR (like Dark Tower) is indeed a single WORK, it was published over a number of years as a trilogy and that's the only way it was available when I first read it (and, no doubt, Sai King).

A single volume edition came much later!

Long days and pleasant nights

[sam peebles]

I don't think this is a mistake. When it was originally published, the LOTR was three separate volumes, even though it was a single story. This makes it a trilogy. Whether Tolkien wrote it all together, or had originally intended it to be a single book, is moot. Even today, the book is still marketed and published as a trilogy, although single volumes of the entire Lord of the Rings are of course available (I own one myself).

n. pl. tril·o·gies
A group of three dramatic or literary works related in subject or theme.

Now, if King had said, for example, that Balrogs had wings, then I would agree with you.

[Moderator]

If we went by the logic of how it was written rather than how it was published, then The Dark Tower would only be 5 books because Steve wrote the last 3 at the same time but split them up for publication. He did have that planned when he did the writing but he did not take a break in between writing books 5, 6, and 7. Or going a step further, it might also be considered just one book as they are all part of a single story. Perhaps that's how it happened with LOTR, too.