The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King. Three Volumes. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954, 1954, 1955. First Editions, First Impressions. Each with a large folding map after Christopher Tolkien at rear. Publisher’s red cloth, spines lettered in gilt, top edges stained red, original publisher’s red, black and gilt dust jackets. Jackets are age-toned & have been repaired with a little loss, more so to lower spine of ‘The Fellowship.’ Cloth to first volume mottled with patchy staining, gilt title faded to spine, contents clean & bright throughout. Second volume cloth nice and clean, contents clean & bright throughout. Third volume, patchy fading to spine, fading to gilt title otherwise in nice bright condition. Housed in slipcase.

A very good set of first issues of the single most important work of fantasy literature in the twentieth century. Tolkien’s masterpiece trilogy.

‘The Lord of the Rings’ where he created an amazing new mythology.

The publishing history of Tolkien’s trilogy is very complex, with a bewildering number of editions and impressions being produced in the years since ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ first appeared in 1954, the other two volumes in the trilogy in 1955.