Editing Prequel (section)

==History==
Though the word "prequel" is of recent origin, works fitting this concept existed long before. The ''[[Cypria]]'', presupposing hearers' acquaintance with the events of the Homeric epic, confined itself to what preceded the ''[[Iliad]]'', and thus formed a kind of introduction.

According to the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', the word "prequel" first appeared in print in 1958 in an article by [[Anthony Boucher]] in ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction]]'', used to describe [[James Blish]]'s 1956 story ''[[They Shall Have Stars]],'' which expanded on the story introduced in his earlier 1955 work, ''Earthman Come Home''. However, [[Christopher Tolkien]], writing about the history of ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' in 1977, claims that his father, [[J. R. R. Tolkien]], "coined the highly uncharacteristic word 'prequel{{' "}} when badgered for a definition of the relationship between ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' and ''The Silmarillion'' sometime after 1955.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tolkien |first1=Christopher |title=The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien: A Brief Account of the Book and Its Making |date=2022 |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |location=London |isbn=9780008537906 |page=9}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Tolkien |first1=Christopher |title=Christopher Tolkien: 'The Silmarillion' |url=https://www.tolkienestate.com/writing/christopher-tolkien-the-silmarillion/ |website=Tolkien: The Official Site of the Tolkien Estate |access-date=13 November 2022 |quote=Thus ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' is at once the precursor of and the sequel to ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' — a curious situation, for which he himself, when badgered for a definition of the relation between the two books, coined the highly uncharacteristic word ‘prequel’!}}</ref>

The term came into general usage in the 1970s and 1980s.<ref name=oxford>{{cite book |contribution=prequel, n. |title=Oxford English Dictionary |edition=3rd |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=March 2012 |orig-year=March 2007 |contribution-url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/150546 |access-date=19 April 2012|title-link=Oxford English Dictionary }}</ref>

''[[Butch and Sundance: The Early Days]]'' (1979) may have introduced the term "prequel" into the mainstream.<ref name=salon>{{cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/1999/06/26/lester/|last=Burgess|first=Steve|date=1999-06-26|title=Richard Lester: A Hard Day's Life|quote=Lester may also have locked up the dubious distinction of inaugurating the term 'prequel' in 1979 when he directed 'Butch and Sundance: The Early Days.'}}</ref> 

An example of a prequel would be [[C. S. Lewis]]'s children's book, ''[[The Magician's Nephew]]'', published in 1955, that explained the creation of Narnia - the subject of Lewis's seven-book series ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'', which began with ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'', published in 1950.

''The Adventures of Ben Gunn'', a 1956 novel by [[R. F. Delderfield]], was written as a prequel to the novel ''Treasure Island''.