The Lord of The Rings Trilogy. The Fellowship of the Ring; The Two Towers; The Return of The King. London: G. Allen, 1966. Second Edition, First Impressions. Publisher’s red cloth covers, title in gilt to spines, in distinctive illustrated dust jackets. Neat gift inscription (Christmas 1966) to front free endpaper, otherwise a fine bright set.

The first British hardcover printing of the second edition, published in 1966. The dust jackets for The Two Towers and The Return of the King  feature the blocked-out misprinted titles on the inner flaps, confirming these as first-state dust jackets.

The most significant edition after the first, containing extensive corrections, revision and additions by the author. These include a new foreword by the author discussing the writing and publishing of The Lord of The Rings, an extended prologue and six appendices plus an index.

“A number of errors and inconsistencies that still remained in the text have been corrected, and an attempt to has been made to provide information on a few points which attentive readers have raised.”

Extract from a review of the first volume in the trilogy which appeared on 20 August, 1954:

“To have created so enthralling an epic-romance, with its own mythology, with such diversity of scene and character, such imaginative largess in invention and description, and such supernatural meaning underlying the wealth of incident, is a most remarkable feat. Mr. Tolkien is one of those born storytellers who makes his readers as eager as wide-eyed children for more. His style, in prose and verse, is fresh and fluent and equally apt to the expression of unearthly beauty, homely humour, or stark horror.”