Publication history

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 possibility of another global conflagration was ever increasing, as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini threatened the stability of Europe, whilst Japan did likewise in the East. Hilton's narrative also reflected a contemporary fascination with the mysteries of Tibet - a closed country only relatively recently 'discovered' by the West. The book's publication also coincided with a move away from traditional prescriptive religions such as Christianity and Islam, towards the more generalist - "moderate" - and philosophy-based Eastern equivalents such as Buddhism. In 1950 Hilton participated in a radio broadcast for the American NBC University Theatre programme. Therein he commented upon writing Lost Horizon during the British winter of 1932-33, and of subsequently meeting a person who claimed to have visited a real Shangri-La in Tibet:

Lost Horizon was written in London eighteen years ago during the winter of 1932. That was a hard winter for the world - the lowest point, had we then known it, of the Depression, and already dark with the threat of war to come. About that time it probably began to dawn on civilized man that he lived in an age of recurrent and deepening crises; that military victories did not bring peace; that his world wars would have to be given numbers; and that nowhere on earth was there any place where the storm could be outridden. It was in this mood that I wrote Lost Horizon. And I enjoyed writing it as one may sometimes almost consciously enjoy a dream. I remember taking walks near my home and climbing the English hills with wild thoughts of Everest and Kanchenjunga. I remember hours in libraries reading tales and legends of the great missionary travellers who explored all Central Asia centuries ago. And I remember when people asked what I was doing those days? It was fun to answer that I was busy on a novel about Tibet, thus leading to the natural question: "Had I ever been there?" I hadn't, and still haven't, and the way things now look I don't suppose I ever shall. But when recently I saw the motion pictures that Lowell Thomas and his son took during their astonishing Tibetan trip a year ago, I had the curious feeling that I had seen that land before with my own eyes; that I had heard its voices and chants and trumpets, and had breathed the thin icy air of its mountain passes. And a further strange thing is that I once met another traveller from Tibet – a rather odd fellow he was - and he assured me that he had actually found the lost valley of Shangri-La that I wrote about - a haven of peace and beauty hidden amidst the highest peaks in the world, and that it was all pretty much as I had described it. Of course, I can hardly believe that! But I should like to - I should like to. (Hilton 1950)

Hilton was obviously intrigued by the concept, and reality, of Tibet: a land with a 'strange yet profound religion; harsh yet benign theocracy; splendid and archaic civilisation; impossible landscapes of mountains and deserts; rugged yet amiable people; frustrating and tormenting isolation; and position atop the highest mountains on the globe' (Bishop 1989). This fascination gave rise to a timeless literary work which captured some of the mystery and essence of Tibet prior to its tragic invasion by China in 1950, the exile of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and the physical destruction of much of its Buddhist cultural heritage during the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s. Tibet remains a country under occupation by the Chinese, and whether Shangri-La still exists - either in reality or only in the mind - remains to be seen.

2. The story of a manuscript

The following account refers to the sale of one of the manuscript copies of Lost Horizon, as offered by an American rare book dealer in 2008 [Source: Lakin & Marley Rare Books]:

One of the most celebrated and best-loved novels of the 20th century, Lost Horizon in 1933 introduced “Shangri-La” to the English language and remains the 20th century’s most renowned fictional vision of modern utopia. Lost Horizon was typed by the author himself at his parents’ modest semi-detached home at Woodford Green, Essex in April of 1933 after an intensive six weeks of composition. [NB: Hilton has stated that the novel was actually written during the northern winter of 1932.] It was submitted to, and immediately accepted by, the London publishing house Macmillan sometime before 9 May 1933. Also in early May 1933, a successful arrangement was made by Macmillan for Lost Horizon to be published simultaneously in the United States on 26 September 1933 in association with Hilton’s already established New York publisher William Morrow. The corrected ribbon typescript of the final draft of the novel was sent to Macmillan and this, the corrected carbon copy [i.e. the manuscript offered for sale by Lakin & Marley in 2008], was sent to Morrow.

HILTON, JAMES (1900-1954). FINAL ANNOTATED DRAFT TYPESCRIPT OF LOST HORIZON, [Woodford Green, Essex, April 1933], 257pp., 4to (10 x 8 inches), 206 pages with authorial manuscript revisions, corrections, deletions, and insertions in black ink, 61 of which include textual changes present in the work’s first edition, the first leaf with the author’s initial working title, “Blue Moon,” in handwritten block letters and signed [“James Hilton”], followed by a typed but unnumbered half-title and prologue title, all other leaves hand-numbered at the top right corner as follows: 1-128, 128A, 128B, 129-206, 206A, 207-209, 209A, 210-211, 211A, 211B, 211C, 212-236, [a single page designated “237-242”], 243, 243A. [Unnumbered epilogue title page], 244-253. All leaves have four uniform holes in the left margin for insertion in a binder and are age-toned with occasional minor chipping; many have blue-pencil and ordinary-pencil corrections in two other distinct, certainly proof-corrector, hands (see below). The final three-and-one-half paragraphs of the epilogue (918 words) are not included with this typescript; this missing portion constitutes four typewritten pages at Hilton’s rate of roughly 215-230 words per typed page and may represent a final set of changes to the novel’s coda delivered later under separate cover. Otherwise the typescript is entirely complete and corresponds to the printed text of the first edition, with each leaf now placed in an archival Mylar sleeve and the entire manuscript housed in a new custom quarter-morocco slipcase. Provenance: “The Papers of James Hilton”, Christie’s Los Angeles, 18th November 1999 (lot 83).

There are some minor but fitfully significant textual differences between the first English edition and the first U.S. edition and these small differences exist entirely due to William Morrow’s last-minute efforts to provide the novel with “Americanization” for its readership. Upon receipt of the present typescript in New York, Morrow put its blue pencil to work. The alterations made by this corrector can be found most prominently in the improvement of those speeches made by the one American character in Lost Horizon:Barnard, the disgraced post-1929 Wall Street Crash stock swindler on the run. In addition, Morrow’s corrector did a little translating for American readership (e.g. “petrol” became “gasoline,” “gramophone” became “phonograph”). Further, a dose of editorial polish was added to Barnard’s argot, as Hilton’s ear for American slang wasn’t completely true. It also appears, surprising as it might seem, that Hilton did not review the American galleys as every single one of Morrow’s blue-penciled changes, even those of slightly dubious value, seem to have made it into the first American edition. William Morrow’s revisions of the text had consequences for posterity. In 1939 the American text became the standard due to Lost Horizon’s publication that year as the historic first-ever American mass market paperback (Pocket Books #1) which was reprinted 105 times by the 1960s and translated into thirty-four other languages. By 1969, Pocket Books alone had sold two million copies around the world.

The adaptation of the 1933 novel into the 1937 film further enhanced Lost Horizon’s worldwide fame and the film has long been considered a cinematic classic. It received seven Oscar nominations (including Best Picture) and became the sixth highest grossing film of the 1930s. Its reputation, like the novel’s, continues to grow after almost 75 years. The making of the film can be credited to the unrelenting and inspired efforts of three-time Oscar winning director Frank Capra (“It’s a Wonderful Life” “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington,” “You Can’t Take It With You”) who fell in love with Lost Horizon after idly purchasing the novel for casual reading on a train. He noted in his autobiography that: “I read it; not only read it, but dreamed about it all night.” The film adaptation starred Ronald Colman in one of the many roles he seemed born to play and its much-lauded screenplay was written by Capra’s favorite Oscar-winning scribe, Robert Riskin who, in consultation with Hilton himself, wrote a script which was faithful to the dreamlike quality of the book. Riskin’s sensitive understanding of the novel can be heard in lines of dialogue such as one murmured by Sam Jaffe as the two-hundred-year old High Lama: “There are moments in every man’s life when he glimpses the eternal…” The fact that Frank Capra actually purchased the first heavily corrected draft of the manuscript itself directly from James Hilton (along with the film rights) in 1935 is not quite as odd as it might seem for two well-documented reasons. Capra was already in the process of building a remarkable literary library with the help of legendary rare book dealer Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach. And Capra shamelessly used his purchase of the manuscript as part of his publicity campaign to spur interest in the film. For example, Time magazine’s review of the film’s premiere in its 8 March 1937 issue stated that “Director Capra went to work with typical Hollywood opulence. He bought the original manuscript.”

In actual fact, Capra bought two manuscripts of Lost Horizon, first draft and final draft, both of which appeared together in Parke-Bernet’s April 1949 sale of Frank Capra’s library. The “first draft typescript,” as described in Parke-Bernet’s sale catalogue, consisted of 259 leaves. It had been typed rapidly without editing or pause as was consistent with Hilton’s working methods throughout the entire length of his prolific career. It was also typed on the versos of the original manuscript of Hilton’s earlier novel Terry which had been published in 1927, an odd frugality but not altogether surprising given that Hilton was still living and writing at his parents’ house during the time of Lost Horizon’s composition.  Despite eight published novels, by 1933 he had achieved neither literary nor financial success. This “first draft typescript” was then revised via erasure, over-typing, and interlinear holograph additions. All these working methods are depicted in the Capra catalogue, in the plate reproduced opposite Lot 207’s printed, full-page, description. Along with the first draft in the Capra sale, there was a final draft typescript (the corrected ribbon copy) of Lost Horizon. Here follows an excerpted section from Parke-Bernet’s complete description in 1949:

“Included with the original is the finished copy, also containing a few corrections in the author’s hand, on 257 quarto leaves.This was the script used by the printers, containing the galley marks as the book was set up. In addition, a covering letter from the author is included, verifying that the script was typed and corrected by him, and that no duplicates or counterparts exist except the finished copy. The whole of Mr. Hilton’s famous book through the inception and development to the finished story, with the exception of interlinear corrections (which are in holograph), is done on a typewriter, no book or article having ever been written in manuscript...”

What Hilton may have forgotten to tell Frank Capra in 1935 was that there was a third typescript extant, the corrected carbon copy final draft in the possession of William Morrow. Parke-Bernet’s “official priced catalogue” of the Capra sale in 1949 shows that this lot 207, containing two Lost Horizon typescripts, was sold for $450. Whether from that sale or perhaps due to a later transaction, the two typescripts from the Capra sale ended up in the Pennsylvania State University manuscript archives. This most likely was unknown both to the Hilton heirs as well as Christie’s Auction House when, on 18 November 1999, “The Papers of James Hilton…acquired from Hilton’s heirs” appeared for auction at Christie’s Los Angeles. Various letters, photographs, even Hilton’s ink stand, were sold along with the manuscripts (first and final corrected typescripts) of ten of Hilton’s other novels. But both Capra’s typescripts and the “covering letter” for Lost Horizon described in the 1949 Capra sale catalogue were nowhere to be found. Both Christie’s and the Hilton heirs asserted in the 1999 catalogue description that theirs was the “annotated original manuscript of Hilton’s most celebrated novel…” and that “…although Hilton had donated some of his manuscripts to the Library of Congress, he kept this, his most important work. It was discovered among his personal papers…”  In actual fact, their copy was the corrected carbon final draft manuscript which was returned to the Hilton family by William Morrow at some unknown time. As Frank Capra’s copies of the first and final Macmillan corrected drafts survive in the vault at Pennsylvania State University, then ours is the only available manuscript of Lost Horizon and, as such, is one of the few great literary manuscript works of the twentieth century still remaining in private hands. 

[NB: This manuscript was subsequently sold by Bonhams, New York, in 2016]  

 

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3. Publication History

The table below refers to English language versions of Lost Horizon published in the UK and US between 1933-75. Foreign language editions are referred to in the section that follows.

 

Year	Month	Description	Printing
1933	September	Grosset & Dunlap, New York	1	Silver & red dustjacket
1933	September	Macmillan & Co., London. Octavo	1	Cream & brown dustjacket
1933	27-Sep	William Morrow & Company, New York, 1st edition	1	Orange & yellow dustjacket
1934	May	William Morrow & Company, New York	2	Orange & yellow dustjacket
1934	September	William Morrow & Company, New York	3	Orange & yellow dustjacket
1934	September	Macmillan & Co., London	4	Cream & brown dustjacket
1934	October	Hawthornden Prize edition, Morrow, 1st printing	1	Blue dustjacket
1934	October	Hawthornden Prize Edition	2	Blue dustjacket
1934	October	Hawthornden Prize Edition	3	Blue dustjacket
1934	October	Hawthornden Prize Edition	4	Blue dustjacket
1934	November	Hawthornden Prize Edition	5	Blue dustjacket
1934	November	Hawthornden Prize Edition	6	Blue dustjacket
1934	December	Hawthornden Prize Edition	7	Blue dustjacket
1934	December	Hawthornden Prize Edition	8	Blue dustjacket
1934	December	Hawthornden Prize Edition	9	Blue dustjacket
1935	February	Hawthornden Prize Edition	10	Blue dustjacket
1935	August	Hawthornden Prize Edition	11	Blue dustjacket
1935	September	Hawthornden Prize Edition	12	Blue dustjacket
1935	November	Hawthornden Prize Edition	13	Blue dustjacket
1935	December	William Morrow & Company, New York	9	Orange & yellow dustjacket
1935	?	Macmillan & Co., London		Cream & brown dustjacket
1936	January	Hawthornden Prize Edition	14	Blue dustjacket
1936	May	Hawthornden Prize Edition	15	Blue dustjacket
1936	August	Hawthornden Prize Edition, Grosset & Dunlap - endpapers with scene from film	16	Full colour dustjacket
1936	August	Hawthornden Prize Edition, Grosset & Dunlap - endpapers with scene from film	17	Full colour dustjacket
1936	August	Popular / Photoplay Edition, Grosset & Dunlap	1	Brown & red (photo) dustjacket
1936	October	Hawthornden Prize Edition - issued as Author's Edition	18	Multicolour dustjacket
1936	October	Photoplay Edition, Cottage Library, Macmillan, 12mo	1
1936	October	Popular / Photoplay Edition, Grosset & Dunlap	2	Brown & red (photo) dustjacket
1936	November	Popular / Photoplay Edition, Grosset & Dunlap	3	Brown & red (photo) dustjacket
1936	?	Athenaeum, Budapest	1
1936	?	Author's Edition	2	Multicolour dustjacket
1937	May	Author's Edition	4	Multicolour dustjacket
1937	?	Author's Edition	5	Multicolour dustjacket
1937	April	Photoplay edition
1937	September	Photoplay edition
1937	October	Photoplay edition
1937	?	Photoplay edition
1937	March	Popular / Photoplay Edition, Grosset & Dunlap	4	Brown & red (photo) dustjacket
1938	?	Photoplay edition
1938	January	Popular / Photoplay Edition, Grosset & Dunlap	5	Brown & red (photo) dustjacket
1938	March	Popular / Photoplay Edition, Grosset & Dunlap	6	Brown & red (photo) dustjacket
1938	March	Popular / Photoplay Edition, Grosset & Dunlap	7	Brown & red (photo) dustjacket
1938	March	Popular / Photoplay Edition, Grosset & Dunlap	8	Brown & red (photo) dustjacket
1939	May	Pocket Book Edition	1
1939	June	Pocket Book Edition	2
1942	?	Pocket Book Edition	21
1943	?	Macmillan, Canada, 1st printing	1
1944	?	Macmillan & Co., London		Cream & brown dustjacket
1946	?	Macmillan & Co., London, 12mo
1947	?	Pan Books	1
1948	?	Pan Books	2
1950	?	Pan Books	3
1953	?	Pan Books	4
1956	?	Pan Books	5
1957	?	Pan Books	6
1960	?	Pan Books	7
1966	?	Author's Edition	24
1969	?	Author's Edition
1972	?	Pocket Book Edition	72
1975	?	Author's Edition	30

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4. The story of the book

James Hilton's novel Lost Horizon was first published by Macmillan and Co., London, in September 1933. It was a hardback, octavo (8vo) edition bound in green or red cloth. The dust jacket bore a plain, pale cream background with black text and a brown drawing by 'KB' of lamasery buildings perched precariously on the side of a snow-covered mountainous landscape, representative of the artist's vision of the Tibetan Himalayas. In later printings the drawing was in blue on a white background.

* Macmillan & Co., London, 1933, 242p. First UK edition. Octavo size.

There has only ever been two versions of Lost Horizon in regard to the original text, though numerous reprints - also referred to as editions - exist as a result of its ongoing popularity. As noted above, the original British text varies slightly from the 1933 Americanized text, with the latter becoming the standard. In regards to editions, the so-called Author's Edition of 1936 comes closest to a second edition, in that it contains a brief preface by Hilton and is illustrated. It was also supplemented in 1957 by a William Morrow 'Publisher's Preface', following on the death of Hilton in 1954. Other special and popular editions were merely the resetting of type, new bindings in hardback and paperback, variations in size, or the application of new cover or dust jacket art. Despite the detailed listings below, there are numerous unsighted variants, often arising out of issues around the supply of paper and ink available at the time to printers and publishers.

William Morrow & Co. of New York, and its subsidiary Grosset and Dunlap, both issued the first American editions during 1933, with similar, though not identical, dust jackets. The first William Morrow edition bears a copyright date of 31 August 1933, marking its release at the same time as the British edition. It did not appear in the shops until a month later.

* William Morrow & Company, New York, 31 August 1933, 277p. 1st US edition. Variants are known in green, black and red cloth covers with a single orange, yellow and black dust jacket featuring a line drawing of Himalayan mountain peaks.

The Grosset and Dunlap edition of 1933 bears a different cover and dustjacket.

* Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1933. Blue cloth cover with metallic grey, blue and red dust jacket.

The book was initially slow to sell. However, a second William Morrow printing took place in May 1934. Its popularity increased in the United States when it was awarded the British Hawthornden Prize in June of that year. A second printing took place in the UK in September 1934, and a special edition was also got up at the same time by William Morrow. The book was, in fact, re-launched around the same time that Hilton was having success with his novella Goodbye Mr Chips. This proved a wise move on the part of the publisher.

* Hawthornden Prize edition, William Morrow, New York, 1934.

The Hawthornden Prize edition was so successful that it saw eight printings between October - December 1934, and by May 1936 this had extended into a 15th and final printing. During October 1936 William Morrow / Grosset & Dunlap began issuing subsequent printings as the so-called Author's Edition, with 23 such versions through to 1965. It initially included coloured illustrations - subsequently omitted - and a new, introductory preface by Hilton noting the book's initially muted impact:

Lost Horizon was first published on both sides of the Atlantic in the autumn of 1933. Its sale was slow at first, and though it had a few fervent and even notable admirers, by Christmas of that year one might have prophesied that even the ripple it had stirred might already be stilled. As this happens to almost ninety nine percent of novels, I was not enormously surprised, though I was - dare I say it! - a little disappointed. But in June, 1934, the book received the Hawthornden Prize, which is given yearly in England for an imaginative work written by a British author under the age of forty-one. The result was in the nature of a resurrection; the sale of the original English edition began to gather momentum, while in America the publishers took the almost unique step of  issuing the book afresh. Such a second chance was well taken, for during the past two years seventeen editions have been printed. This, the eighteenth, makes a permanent one. I recount these details without vainglory, though I cannot pretend to be indifferent over them. There is certainly no book of mine whose success I ever desired more keenly, for Lost Horizon was, in part, the expression of a mood for which I had always hoped to find sympathizers. I found them in the thousands, and now, through the medium of the screen version that Frank Capra has made, the same mood, I hope, will find them in the millions. Which leads me to the final remark about this mood. When Lost Horizon first appeared three years ago, its message of the peril of war to all we mean by the word "civilization" was considered topical. "It will be such a storm as the world has not seen before. There will be no safety by arms, no help from authority, no answer in science. It will rage till every flower of culture is trampled, and all human things are leveled in a vast chaos... The Dark Ages that are to come will cover the whole world in a single pall; there will be neither escape nor sanctuary, save such as are too secret to be found or too humble to be noticed...." How much happier one would be to dismiss all this as thoroughly out-of-date, than to admit, as one must, that in 1936 it has become more terrifyingly up-to-date than ever! James Hilton, London, August 4, 1936 (Hilton 1936)

By August 1936 Hollywood had also intervened to further promote the book. During 1934 movie director Frank Capra picked up a copy at a train station and upon reading it immediately determined to make a film version. By the middle of 1936 his production was well underway and its release eagerly anticipated due to an extensive pre-release publicity campaign. As a result, the 16th printing of August 1936 included end papers with a scene from the forthcoming Columbia Pictures adaptation. This was eventually released the following March. The dust jacket included artwork by famous American artist James Montgomery Flagg which would feature in posters and other promotional material for the film.

* Hawthornden Prize edition, August 1936 dust jacket.

For a brief period during 1936 the Hawthornden Prize edition was published in the US as part of the Author's Edition, with the latter also serving as a film tie-in, though not in the traditional sense whereby numerous images from the film would be featured throughout. A confusing number of variants were therefore issued in the US during this period, usually under the imprint of both William Morrow and Grosset & Dunlap, and with differing dust jackets, cover illustrations, embossed detail and sizes.

* Grosset & Dunlap, Author's Edition, New York, 1936. Illustrated.

* William Morrow, Author's Edition, 1936. Illustrated.

Early printings of the Author's Edition included six colour plate watercolour drawings which seem to be related to the Frank Capra film of the novel. The release of the Hollywood cinematic adaptation of Lost Horizon in March 1937, starring Ronald Colman and Jane Wyatt, resulted in the release of further editions and renewed popularity around the world. The studio also published a lavish book on the making of the film, with numerous black and white and colour illustrations. The late 1936 English film tie-in edition by Macmillan of London featured a dust jacket with wrap around artwork by British artist Jock Hinchcliffe. This artwork was also published as a poster in The Cinema magazine.

 * Film tie-in edition, Cottage Library, Macmillan, London, 1936, 281p. Red cloth covers with embossed design and coloured dust jacket. Size: 12mo.

This book did not feature illustrations from the movie. It was a small octavio size (4 1/2 × 7 inches), issued by Macmillan and printed by R. & R. Clarke, Edinburgh, as part of the Cottage Library series from October 1936, for use locally and export to countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It was reprinted in April, September and October 1937, and during 1938, with the Hinchcliffe dust jacket. The book had by this time become a bestseller in Western markets. Macmillan also issued an edition during 1937-8 without dust jacket but with a soft, velvety cloth cover in dark blue / black and bearing gilt inscriptions.

 

* Macmillan & Co., London, 1937-8, 284p. Blue cloth with gilt decoration.

A Grosset & Dunlap so-called Popular Edition appeared in eight printings in the US between August 1936 and March 1938, alongside the Author's Edition.

Foreign editions of Lost Horizon began to appear shortly after the initial UK and US releases, with the book ultimately translated into at least 34 different languages according to one source. For example, A kék hold völgye [Lost Horizon] was published by Athenaeum in Budapest during 1936.

* A kék hold völgye, Athenaeum, Budapest, 1936.

This was the first of many subsequent editions in that country, including one by Bibliotheca in 1946. Numerous Spanish language editions were also published for the Mexican, South American and Spanish markets. Some of these are listed below. Most significantly, William Morrow & Co. issued a soft cover, paperback edition during May 1939 with a pictorial cover. This was the first for Lost Horizon and the initial issue of the new Pocket Books brand. It proved a huge success.

* Pocket Books edition, New York, May 1939. First paperback edition. Size: 16mo.

The paperback went into its 21st printing during early 1942, 58th in 1964 and 74th in 1972, such was its continuing popularity. The cover artwork comprised a watercolour drawing featuring a plane and the Shangri-La lamasery. This was later used for a Mexican edition, in Spanish. The Pocket Books edition of Lost Horizon is often cited in the US as the first modern paperback, though this is a fallacy as the paperback form dates from the early 1800s in Europe. More recently, for example, when the Fritz Lang film Metropolis premiered in Berlin during January 1927, both hard cover and paperback versions of the novelization by his wife Thea von Harbou were available, having been published late in 1926. Paperbacks were always popular with travelers, and as film tie-ins from the earliest days of cinema. Nevertheless, Lost Horizon was one of the first modern literary classics to achieve noted sales as a paperback in the US. The British Penguin Books paperback series also helped set this phenomena in train when they began to appear from 1935. By the early 1950s paperbacks were increasingly common. They also provided new and cheaper opportunities for cover art variations, in comparison to the more cumbersome and expensive dust jacketed hardback editions.

A Canadian edition first appeared in 1943, during the war, with a variant on the original 1933 Macmillan UK dust jacket.

* Macmillan of Canada, Toronto, 1943. 1st edition. Dust jacket in blue and red on a white background.

Also during World War II an illustrated version was issued by the World Publishing Company of Cleveland, Ohio, with drawings by Kurt Weiss. The status of this edition is unclear. A South American edition also appeared around this time.

* The Living Library, World Publishing Co., Cleveland, 1944, 1947, 8mo, 277p. Illustrated by Kurt Weiss.

* Horizontes Perdidos, Ediciones Peuser, Buenos Aires, 1945, 289p. 

* Author's Edition, Macmillan, UK, 1946.

Macmillan in the UK first issued Lost Horizon as a paperback in 1947 as part of the Pan Books series. The war had put paid to an earlier release in that country due to paper rationing.

* Pan Books, Macmillan, UK, 1947, 189p. Paperback. 1st edition.

The artwork of subsequent Pan covers emphasised the relationship between George Conway and the part-Asian Maria. This reflected a British fascination with mixed-race relationships which had developed during the war years and was best seen in movies such as The World of Suzie Wong. The latter was based on Richard Mason's 1957 novel. Capra’s film did not follow this path, but presented Conway's love interest as British / American.

* Pan Books, Macmillan, circa 1948. 2nd printing.

* Horizontes Perdidos, Ediciones Peuser, Buenos Aires, 1949.

* Pan Macmillan, UK, 1950. 3rd printing.

* Pan Books, Macmillan, UK, 1953. 4th printing.

The cover of the 1954 Italian edition featured three of the main characters, in black and white, disregarding the British-Asian love affair theme so popular during that decade. 

* Orizzonte Perduto, Biblioteca Economica Mondadori, Italy, 1954.

* Pan Books, Macmillan, UK, 1950s. 5th printing.

* Pan Books, Macmillan, UK, 1950s. 6th printing.

* Pocket Books #1, New York, November 1956. 40th printing.

The cover of the 1956 Buenos Aires edition featured a surreal, Salvador Daliesque image, with a transparent door opening on to a mountainous landscape, whilst a clock face appears in the foreground pointing to the timelessness of Shangri-La. 

 

* Ediciones Peuser, Buenos Aires, 1956.

* A kék hold völgye, Budapest, 1957.

In 1957 publisher William Morrow included a biographical note in the Author's Edition, following on the recent death of James Hilton and in connection with the Korean War and insidious Cold War:

 

Publisher's Note - 1957 When James Hilton died in 1954 the world of arts and letters lost one of the really fine creative writers of our time. The author's Preface that follows was written almost twenty-one years ago. If James Hilton were alive today to write a preface to celebrate this new edition of his most beloved novel, he would have to point out again that "its message of the period of war to all that we mean by the word 'civilization' is even more topical in 1957 than it was in 1936 or 1933. This fact undoubtedly explains in part why Lost Horizon lives on decade after decade. If and when the day comes that we no longer face the possible destruction of civilization, and the topical interest in Lost Horizon is consequently  diminished, the story's appeal will have to depend on the fact that it is one of the most original and one of the great imaginative stories of this century. William Morrow & Company. Author's Edition, William Morrow & Co., New York, 1957.

* More Stories to Remember, Doubleday, New York, 1958. Compilation of 6 novels and 30 short stories, including Lost Horizon. 

Dutch editions also began to appear at the end of the 1950s.

 

* Tapte Horisonter, Denmark, 1950s.

* Tabte Horizonte, Denmark, 1950s.

* Simon and Schuster / William Morrow, New York, 1960.

* Mexico, 1960s. Adaptation of the 1939 Pocket Books cover artwork.

* Great Pan, Macmillan, UK, 1960. 7th printing.

* Orizzonte Perduto, Mostra, Italy, 1960.

* Ediciones CP / Reno, Mexico, 1960, 1973.

The International Collectors Library in 1962 publish a James Hilton compendium edition in hardback form containing Lost Horizon and Goodbye Mr Chips, both of which had been popularised by Hollywood adaptations. Such editions would become common through to the 1990s. Frank Capra's Lost Horizon was also re-released in 1943, 1948 and 1956, keeping the story in the public eye, as did its screening on television from the late 1950s. Meanwhile, variants in publication format and cover design continued to appear through the 1960s.

* Readers' Library Series, Houghton Mifflin, US, 1962, 235p.

* Pocket Books, New York, March 1962 - February 1964.

A special Reader's Enrichment Edition paperback was published by Simon & Schuster, New York, on license from William Morrow, in November 1963, with the 7th printing in March 1969. This edition was aimed at schools and included supplemental texts on Hilton, the book's historical background, the writer's style, and an analysis of individual characters.

* Reader's Enrichment Edition, Washington Square Press, Simon & Schuster, New York, November 1963 - January 1966.

* Author's Edition, William Morrow, US, 24th edition, 1966. Published through to 1969. Not illustrated throughout, unlike the earlier printings, but with a similar dustjacketto the original edition.

* Pan Books, UK, 1966. Paperback. 7th printing.

* Pocket Books, New York, 1966-1970.

* Reader's Enrichment Series, Washington Square Press, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1968.

* Orizzonti Perduti, Morbida, Italy, 1968.

* Biblioteca Oro, Mexico, 1960s. Comic book version.

* Biblioteca Oro, Azul Molino no.287, Mexico, 1960s. Comic book version.

* National Classic Comics, National Bookstore Inc., Manila, 1960s, 40p. Art by Alfred C. Manuel. English edition. Also issued in Spanish.

* Macmillan's Stories to Remember series, UK, 1960s.

* Pocket Books, New York, 74th edition, 1972.

* Pan Books, Macmillan, UK, 1972. Variant on 1966 cover.

* A variety of German covers are illustrated below (various dates). The title therein is usually Irgendwo in Tibet.

A musical film version of Lost Horizon was released by Columbia Pictures in 1973 and a paperback edition accompanied it in the UK and US. This film version was not as successful as the Capra 1937 version.

* Pan Books, Macmillan, UK, 1973. Film tie-in. 15th printing.

* Simon & Schuster, New York, 1973. Film tie-in.

Lost Horizon, 1973 (film). Source: YouTube. This is a musical version based on Hilton's original novel and the Capra film of 1937.

* Kakugawashoten, Japan, 1973. Film tie-in.

* Houghton Mifflin in the US published a special hardcover edition of Lost Horizon for schools in 1976.

* An audio book version of Lost Horizon was released by Books on Tape, US, 1978. It was read by Richard Green. Duration: 7 hrs.

* Lost Horizon, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts / Pan Books, London, 1978.

* Dial Comics Group, US, 1970s. Comic book version. Relates the story to Marvel's Dr. Strange.

* Tabte Horisonter, Lindhardt Og Ringhof, Denmark, 1980s.

* Franklin Library, US, 1981. Special leather bound edition.

 

* Bortom Horisonten, Sweden, 1982.

* Pendulum Press, Contemporary Motivators series, US, 1982. Comic book version.

* Aims International Book Corporation,  Italy, 1983.

 

* A Kek Hold Volgye [Lost Horizon], Kozmosz Könyvek, Budapest, 1984.

* F.A. Thorpe, US, 1984. Chatswood large print edition.

* Reader's Digest Association, Connecticut, 1990. Illustrated.

* Amereon Ltd., US, 1993. Hardcover.

* Audio book - Soundings, UK, 1995. Read by Christopher Kay. Duration: 7 hrs 30 mins.

* Summersdale Publishers, 2003. Tibetan artwork cover.

* Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, US, 2004.

* Ancient Wisdom Publications, US, 2009.

* Easton Press, 2010. Special leather bound edition.

* Benediction Classics, 2010. Hardback.

* IndoEuropean Publishing, 2011.

* Harper Collins Perennial, US, 2012.

* James Hilton Compendium Edition, Oxford City Press, 2010.

* Metha Publishing House, India, 2013.

* Random House, UK, 2015, 224p.

* Wishletter Classic Publishing, 2016. Illustrated. Kindle version.

* Dead Authors Society, 2016. Paperback.

* Wildside Press, US, 2017.

* Yunnan People's Publishing House, China, 2018.

* China Women Publishing House, 2018.

Efforts to restore the 1937 Frank Capra film since the late 1970s gave rise to its release on video cassette and DVD from the 1980s, culminating in the special 40th anniversary Blu-ray disc edition in 2017. This presented the original 132 minute long 1937 release version in a state of the art digital form, though still with some missing footage. All of this work and exposure brought new readers to Hilton's original work of fiction, as did its availability as an e-book since the early 2010s via online applications such as Kindle. The latter enabled one to read it on a smartphone, though print remained a preference for many readers. Lost Horizon, with its theme of the search for a peaceful utopia, or Shangri-La, remains available in print and e-format, maintaining its timeless quality and forever enhanced by Frank Capra's cinematic adaptation.

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5. References

Adams, David, The Lost Horizon of Shangri-la [documentary], Dharma Documentaries, Discovery Channel / Timeline - World History Documentaries, 1999. Duration: 50.22 minutes.

 

Bishop, Peter, The myth of Shangri-La: Tibet, travel writing, and the western creation of sacred landscape, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1989.

Bonhams, An Annotated Final Draft Manuscript of Lost Horizon, Bonhams, New York, 30 November 2016. Available URL: https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/23477/lot/542/?category=results.

Capra, Frank, The Name Above The Title, Macmillan, New York, 1971. 

Carroll, Timothy, Could this be the way to Shangri-La?, The Telegraph, London, 29 July 2002.

Carter, Erlet, The space of the dream: a case of mistaken identity? Area, 2001, 33(1), 47-54.

Chou, Shiuhhuah Serena, The Secret of Shangri-La: Agricultural Travels and the Rise of Organic Farming Discourse, Comparative Literature Studies, 50(1), 2013, 108-119. 

Classen, Albrecht, Hermann Hesses Glasperlenspiel (1943) und James Hilton's Lost Horizon (1933): Intertextuelle Beziehungen zweier utopischer Entwurfe aus den Zwischenkriegsjahren, Studia Neophilologica: A Journal of Germanic and Romance Languages and Literature, 2000; 72 (2), 190-202.

Cooney, Eleanor and Altieri, Daniel, Shangri-La, William Morrow, New York, 1996. [Fiction]

Crisler, B.R., Film gossip of the week [Interview with James Hilton], The New York Times, 26 July 1936.

Crittenden, Victor. Watkin Tench, La Perouse and Lost Horizon, Margin: Monash Australiana Research Group Informal Notes, 70, November 2006, 4-9.

De Marco, Frank, Messenger, Hampton Roads, Norfolk, 1994. [Fiction]

Dirda, Michael, Hiding from our troubles in Shangri-La: James Hilton's Lost Horizon captures the cultural apprehension widely felt in the early 1930s, The Wall Street Journal, 12 May 2017.

Halliwell, Leslie, Return to Shangri-La, Grafton, London, 1987. [Fiction]

Hammond, John R., The Lost Horizon Companion:  a guide to the James Hilton Novel and its Characters, Critical Reception, Film Adaptations and Place in Popular Culture, McFarland Press, London and Jefferson, North  Carolina, 2008. 

Hilton, James, Lost Horizon, Macmillan, London / William Morrow and Company, New York, 1933.

-----, Preface, Lost Horizon, Author's Edition, William Morrow and Company, New York, October 1936.

-----,  Memories of writing Lost Horizon [audio], NBC University Theatre, New York, 1950. Duration: 2.25. Available URL: https://youtu.be/O7PV6gkkbS0.

Huc, Évariste Régis, Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China during the Years 1844–5–6, Vol. I, Routledge, London, 1928.

Lakin and Marley, Featured Manuscript - Lost Horizon, Lakin & Marley Rare Books, San Francisco  [webpage], 2008. Available URL: http://www.lakinandmarley.com/featuredmanuscript.html.

LePage, Victoria, Shambala: The Fascinating Truth Behind the Myth of Shangri-La, 1996.

Mather, Jeffrey, Captivating Readers: Middlebrow Aesthetics and James Hilton's Lost Horizon, CEA Critic, 2017, 79(2), 231-243.

McRae, Michael, The Siege of Shangri-La: The Quest for Tibet's Hidden Secret Places, Broadway Books, New York, 2002.

Musuzawa, T., From empire to utopia: the effacement of colonial markings in 'Lost Horizon' (James Hilton), Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, 1999, 7(2), 541-572.

Riskin, Robert, Six Screenplays, edited and introduced by Patrick Gilligan, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1997.

Sorkhabi, Rasoul, James Hilton and Shangri-La, The Himalayan Journal, 64, 2008.

Thomas, Lowell, and Thomas, Lowell Junr., High Adventure - Tibet [film], 1949. Duration: 58.47.

Tukas, Tamas, Johah in the Whale: The Spatial Aspects of Nostalgia in James Hilton's Lost Horizon and George Orwell's Coming Up for Air, Eger Journal of English Studies, 2013, XIII, 47-65.

Wikipedia, Shangri-La [webpage], 2019. Available URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-La. 

 

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Lost Horizon: Posters and pictures | Publications | Formats & Versions | Tibet

Last updated: 8 July 2023

Michael Organ, Australia 🇦🇺