Short answers, pulled from the story.
J. Eric Holmes wrote the original 48-page rulebook for the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set in 1977. This publication transformed a niche wargaming hobby into a cultural touchstone for millions of players.
A legal dispute in 1977 fundamentally altered the contents of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set when TSR substituted the Dungeon Geomorphs and Monster & Treasure Assortment booklets. These booklets were replaced with Mike Carr's module In Search of the Unknown to protect corporate profits during the lawsuit.
The 1981 revision edited by Tom Moldvay featured a larger sixty-four-page rulebook with a striking red border and a color cover by Erol Otus. This version included the module B2 The Keep on the Borderlands and a set of six polyhedral dice packaged with a marking crayon.
Frank Mentzer's 1983 revision redubbed the product as Dungeons & Dragons Set 1: Basic Rules and launched a series that expanded the game's scope from levels one to immortality. The system included Expert Rules for levels four through fourteen, Companion Rules for levels fifteen through twenty-five, Master Rules for levels twenty-six through thirty-six, and Immortals Rules for characters who had transcended levels.
The 1991 version labeled The New Easy-to-Master Dungeons & Dragons Game introduced a teaching method using cards to explain the rules. This set included a 64-page rule book and a Dungeon Card Learning Pack of 48 cards that featured discussion of rules on the front and scenarios on the back.
The 1994 revision edited by Doug Stewart entitled The Classic Dungeons & Dragons Game remained in print until the release of the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons in 2000. This final version combined the best elements of previous revisions into a single 128-page Rules and Adventure Book.