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The many forms of James Hilton's Lost Horizon 1933

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Lost Horizon: Posters and pictures | Publications | Formats & Versions | Tibet   James Hilton's novel Lost Horizon was originally published in 1933. Since then it has remained in print and appeared in numerous editions around the world, and in numerous forms, including two popular film adaptations, plays and audio recordings. The word Shangri-La, coined by Hilton, is now part of everyday English. Though primarily available in complete and unabridged form, the novel can also be found in, for example, abridged and comic book adaptations. A list of the various published editions is presented in a separate blog posting here . During 1937 the Frank Capra-directed Hollywood movie Lost Horizon was released, to much acclaim. Starring Ronald Coleman and Jane Wyatt, it remains a classic of the era, though the original, pristine black and white 35mm presentation has degraded over time and parts of the film as originally released are now lost. A new version of Lost Horizo

Publication history

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Lost Horizon: Posters and pictures | Publications | Formats & Versions | Tibet   1. "... a novel about Tibet" James Hilton's Lost Horizon is a classic work of utopian fantasy fiction first published in London and New York during 1933. Written the previous year, during the depth of the Depression, it is an uplifting story and has remained in print since then through numerous versions, including complete, abridged, illustrated, school text, play and comic forms. The story centres around a quasi-Buddhist lamasery and village known as Shangri-La located deep within the mountainous Himalayan regions of Tibet. A group of Westerners are kidnapped and brought there, with English diplomat Robert Conway marked to replace the aged High Lama [viz Dalai Lama] of the Shangri-La lamasery. The book's underlying message of peace and compassion came at a time when the horrors of the war on the Western Front were still raw in the minds of the British, and the possib