What Happened To My KJV?

I don't know the answers to your questions. My Nelson KJV likewise does not have the dedication to King James.

However, all my subsequent KJV's have been purchased from Local Church Bible Publishers. Not only is their quality 2nd to R Allan and their prices more than reasonable, their Bibles contain not only the dedication to King James, but also an important document entitled "The Translators to the Reader". This is a good thing to read and understand.

 

Yes, the Preface by Myles Smith is much more valuable than the page of dedication to King James.

 

That would actually be referred to as the "Dedication," not the preface.

The preface would more normally refer to the longer "The Translators to the Reader" in the 1611 edition that is probably not in the majority of KJV editions printed today. Even some or many printers of the KJV in Great Britain may omit or leave out the 1611 preface "The Translators to the Reader."

All editions of the KJV do not have the dedication to King James I, especially those printed in America. It is not something that recently happened to some KJV editions since omitting the dedication goes back until at least 1782.

What may be the first entire edition of the KJV printed in America by Robert Aitken in 1782 did not include the dedication. After the American Revolution, printers in America may have thought that a dedication that favored the authority and majesty of the king of England might not be best in a country that had just rejected the king of England's authority over them.

Some editions of the KJV printed in America in the late 1700's and early 1800's would substitute an address "to the reader" by John Witherspoon (1722-1794) for the dedication to King James. That address to the reader without the name of the person who wrote it was perhaps first printed in the 1791 edition of the KJV printed by Isaac Collins.

Since the first editions of the KJV printed in America after the American Revolution did not include that dedication to King James, it may have become somewhat a tradition that it be omitted in American editions. Some printers in America may now include it.

No, it does not involve a copyright.

 

The 1560 Geneva Bible had:

Here's a choice excerpt:

 

Some editions of the KJV have the "Epistle Dedicatory", some do not. Among my Bibles, I have some that do have it and I think I may have at least one that does not.

Less common is the "Translators to the Reader."

 

Ditto, my copy has the Dedication but not the "translators to the readers."
Mine was published by Zondervan.