Inside the White Box

So, what’s in the white box?

The first 3 printings of D&D reportedly came in a wood-grain box with a white sticker on the front announcing Dungeons and Dragons in the distinctive red font followed by the subtitle: Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature Figures.  There was an illustration of a mounted warrior below the title and subtitle.  Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson were listed as authors. The white box apparently appeared with the fourth printing.  I still have my original copy of the three little brown books and reference sheets that came inside the white box, but the box itself is long gone.  Based on my limited research, I believe the copy I have is from the fifth printing. The earlier printings, up through and including the 5^th print run apparently referenced J.R.R Tolkien by name and included Tolkien intellectual properties such as hobbits, ents, balrogs and nazgul.  Starting with the 6^th printing my understanding is those references were removed, hobbit becoming halfling, balrog becoming balor, etc. Page 9 of volume 1 lists ent, hobbit and balrog, terms removed from later printings due to the intellectual property issues, but there is no price on the cover of the 3 volumes, which are titled Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures. I think the first four print runs listed a price of $3.50 on the cover of each volume.  The white box had a price of $10.00.  My volume 1, Men & Magic, has a picture of a standing warrior. Earlier printings had the mounted warrior image from the front of the box on the cover of volume 1. Below the warrior image are the words “Men and Magic” in red letters.  Vol. 2 has an image of a dragon and the words “Monsters & Treasure” in green letters.  Vol. 3 has an image of a hippogriff and the words “The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures” in blue letters. The white box also included a set of Reference Sheets on folded white paper. I have seen an errata sheet that apparently came in some boxes, but if I ever had one of those, it is now lost with the box.