Fine Books and Manuscripts

Fine Books and Manuscripts

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 56. Tolkien, J.R.R. | “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”.

From the Library of Clayre and Jay Michael Haft

Tolkien, J.R.R. | “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”

Lot Closed

December 16, 07:56 PM GMT

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

From the Library of Clayre and Jay Michael Haft


Tolkien, J.R.R.

[The Lord of the Rings]. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1954-1955


3 vols, comprising:

The Fellowship of the Ring. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1954. 8vo (220 x 139 mm). Half-title, two maps printed in red and black, one of which folding and tipped onto the recto of the rear free-endpaper, illustrations by and after Tolkien; lightly toned. Publisher's dark red cloth, spine gilt lettered, top edge stained red, in the original printed dustjacket; edges of text block with mild foxing, endpapers browned, dustjacket with tears at head and tail of spine at joints, spine panel sunned, a few tiny nicks and abrasions, red dampstain at foot of front panel, some spotting to the verso. — The Two Towers. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1955. 8vo (220 x 139 mm). Half-title, folding map tipped onto the recto of the rear free-endpaper; lightly toned, stray spots. Publisher's red cloth, spine gilt lettered, top edge stained red, in the original printed dustjacket; edges of the text block foxed, stray blue stain to fore-edge, endpapers browned and foxed, dustjacket with tears at head and tail of spine at joints, a few tiny nicks, abrasions, and minor creases, soiling to front and spine panels, smudging to back panel, spine sunned, tape remnants on verso. — The Return of the King. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1955. 8vo (220 x 139 mm). Half-title, appendices, folding map tipped onto the recto of the rear free-endpaper; lightly toned. Publisher's red cloth, spine gilt lettered, top edge stained red, in the original printed dustjacket; edges of the text block foxed, stray black stains to cloth, endpapers browned and foxed, dustjacket with closed tear along rear joint at foot, one or two tiny nicks, foot of spine panel with some smudging and rubbing, minor spotting on the recto with more prominent foxing on the verso.


First editions of all three volumes of the greatest work of modern fantasy.


While serving in the trenches in WWI, Tolkien conceived of these tales set in a "secondary World," for consolation and pleasure; they developed over a period of forty years into an epic narrative. "The Lord of the Rings" has been read as an allegory for multiple conflicts: post-World War I and the rise of Hitler; Christian myth; even the environment, with the Dead Marshes reflecting Tolkien's despair over the desolation wreaked by military technology.


In his essay "On Fairy-Stories," Tolkien spells out his purpose in writing about an imaginary world: "The peculiar quality of the 'joy' in successful Fantasy can thus be explained as a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth. It is not only a 'consolation' for sorrow of this world, but a satisfaction, and an answer to that question, 'Is it true?' The answer to this question that I gave at first was (quite rightly): 'If you have built your little world well, yes: it is true in that world.'"


REFERENCE:

Hammond A5.i-iii