My blog post today is about a June 1978 newspaper article about D&D called "Game brings 'sci-fi' to life". It ran in a Long Beach CA newspaper but the author is Associated Press so it may have run in other papers.

Has some interesting info, inc sales data that might be of interest here.

Gygax: "It took 10 to 11 months before we sold our first thousand [copies of OD&D]. And about half were sold in California".

Gygax estimates "10,000 enthusiasts in California, with 100,000 players nationwide" and the "current sales rate at 5,000 per month, mostly through small hobby shops."

The article doesn't mention Holmes Basic, though it had been out for almost a year, so I'm not sure if the 5,000 per month is just OD&D or all D&D sets.