Books, Manuscripts & Music, from Medieval to Modern

J.R.R Tolkien A collection of signed volumes, comprising: (i) The Hobbit or There and Back Again. London: Puffin Books, 1961. SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR TO UPPER MARGIN OF HALF-TITLE in blue ballpoint pen ("J.R.R. Tolkien"), 8vo, first paperback edition, original wrappers by Pauline Baynes, minor wear to extremities (ii) The Lord of the Rings. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd./Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1963. EACH VOLUME SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR TO HALF-TITLE in black ballpoint pen ("J.R.R. Tolkien"), deluxe edition, later impressions (thirteenth impression [volume one], tenth impression [volumes two and three]), 3 volumes, 8vo, illustrations, maps including folding maps at the end of each volume, black buckram, spines lettered in gilt, edges gilt, original ribbon bookmarks, housed in original slipcase by Pauline Baynes, spine of volume two slightly faded (as usual) A HANDSOME GROUP, SIGNED FOR TOLKIEN'S FRIEND AND DEDICATED FAN EILEEN ELGAR. PROVENANCE: Eileen Elgar; by family descent

View 1 of Lot 84: J.R.R. Tolkien | The Hobbit, 1961, first paperback issue, signed, with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, 1963, deluxe edition (later impressions), signed

j.r.r. tolkien | the hobbit, 1961, first paperback issue, signed, with the lord of the rings trilogy, 1963, deluxe edition (later impressions), signed

J.R.R. Tolkien The Lord of the Rings. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1961 BOLDLY SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR IN EACH VOLUME in blue ballpoint pen on preliminary blank, later impressions (Fellowship: 11th impression; Two Towers and Return: 8th impression), half-titles, illustrations, maps including folding maps at the end of each volume, original red cloth, spines lettered in gilt, top edges red, lacking dust-jackets, the odd stray spot at margins, extremities very slightly rubbed [With, loosely inserted:] 1 page autograph note explaining the Creation myth of Middle Earth and proposing the presentation of a copy of Tree and Leaf A BOLDLY SIGNED SET OF TOLKIEN'S LEGENDARY TRILOGY, TOGETHER WITH A REMARKABLE AUTOGRAPH NOTE ON THE MYTHIC CREATION OF THE RACE OF DWARVES, A UNIQUE RECORD OF THE AUTHOR'S UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIP WITH AN AVID FAN. These volumes, alongside the extraordinary autograph note, were both presented by the author to Eileen Elgar, a known correspondent. In a letter to his grandson of 16 October 1963, Tolkien describes Eileen as an "admirer" who lives near to the Hotel Miramar in Bournemouth, noting that she is "highly intelligent & well-read" though sadly "stone deaf", necessitating the arduous process of conversation "by writing pad" (Letter 249, Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, p. 334) The autograph note included in the present lot, loosely inserted in Fellowship of the Ring, appears to be a product of the cumbersome method of communication necessitated by Eileen's disability: it is hastily penned in ballpoint on a scrap of lined notepaper and with two crossed-out words on the bottom of the verso not obviously connected to the main prose. However, it is clearly also the product of a lively, in-depth discussion, and delves into significant detail regarding Middle Earth Creation lore: "Only the Creator could "create". To attempt to do was a prime sign. The Valar were however in great desire to see Elves and Men. Aule (one of the Valar) tried to 'make' them in secret. God knew this; but Aule was so humble and repentant that God accepted them, and gave them life. — but they had to sleep until His own children (Elves & Men) went in the world. 'Aule's people' are the Dwarves". The Creation myth sketched out in this note would later be expounded upon by the author more fully in the chapter "Of Aulë and Yavanna" in The Silmarillion. On the verso of the note, Tolkien asks Eileen whether she would "like a copy of [his] next book, which contains a short story called Leaf by Niggle (about an artist)". Tolkien evidently kept his promise: see lot 86. PROVENANCE: Volumes and autograph note presented by the author to Eileen Elgar; by family descent.

View 1 of Lot 83: J.R.R. Tolkien | The Lord of the Rings, 1961, 3 volumes, signed by the author, with a remarkable autograph note on the Creation of the race of Dwarves 

j.r.r. tolkien | the lord of the rings, 1961, 3 volumes, signed by the author, with a remarkable autograph note on the creation of the race of dwarves

A set of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>, first printings of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=The+Lord+of+the+Rings&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Lord of the Rings</a> trilogy by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=J.R.R.+Tolkien&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">J.R.R. Tolkien</a>.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 3 volumes.</li><li>J.R.R. Tolkien (English).</li><li>Published by George Allen &amp; Unwin.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Half-titles, folding maps printed in red and black at rear of each volume.</li><li>Original publisher’s red cloth, spines lettered and decorated in gilt with Tolkien’s ring device, top edges stained red; original first issue dust-jackets, priced 21s net.</li><li> </li></ul>The Fellowship of the Ring (1954):<ul><li>[vi], 423, [1] pages.</li><li>“First published in 1954” to verso.</li></ul> The Two Towers (1954):<ul><li>[vi], 352 pages.</li><li>“First published in 1954” to verso.</li></ul> The Return of the King (1955):<ul><li>[vi], 416 pages.</li><li>“First published in 1955” to verso, text complete with Appendix and Index, the name “Legolas” in its characteristic staggered typographical setting, corrected in later impressions.</li></ul> All three volumes retaining correct early maps and red top stain. Rear panels with advertisements referencing The Hobbit (Second Edition, Fifth Impression) and Farmer Giles of Ham, consistent with early states. When The Lord of the Rings appeared between 1954 and 1955, it was issued quietly, in modest print runs, by the London publisher George Allen &amp; Unwin. Tolkien’s achievement was not merely narrative but architectural. Drawing upon philology, medieval literature, mythology, and his own linguistic inventions, he constructed a secondary world of unprecedented depth and internal coherence. Middle-earth was not a setting but a civilisation: languages, genealogies, cosmology, and moral philosophy interwoven with epic narrative. In doing so, Tolkien effectively established the template for modern high fantasy. The trilogy’s publication history underscores its rarity. The first impression of The Fellowship of the Ring numbered only 3,000 copies; The Two Towers followed at 3,250; The Return of the King at 7,000. Survival rates in original, unrestored dust-jackets were never high. More than seventy years after publication, The Lord of the Rings remains one of the most widely read and culturally resonant works of the modern era. The present set — preserved in its original cloth and correctly priced dust-jackets — represents not only a landmark of imaginative literature but a cornerstone of serious book collecting.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy | First Edition, First Printings

Tom Stoppard. A substantial archive of letters to Isabel Dunjohn (later Cortan), comprising c.57 letters (c.33 autograph letters signed, c.24 typed letters, chiefly signed) and c.82 cards, including three letters and one card to Isabel’s son Daniel, with two early typescript stories (two pages), four typed poems signed (in total four pages, dated 1960-63), also with many envelopes (but often disconnected from the original letters), in total over 200 pages, mostly undated but late 1950s-2020s [with:] eight photographs of a young Tom Stoppard (three with the photographer’s stamp of Alexander Low) [also with:] 17 books by Stoppard, all inscribed to Isabel or other family members, including: Introduction 2: Stories by New Writer. 1964. Inscribed “from Tom” and with an additional authorial inscription at the beginning of the Stoppard section; Lord Malquist and the Moon. 1966, dust-jacket, inscribed “To Isabel with love Tom Aug 66” Tom Stoppard first met Isabel Dunjohn (1933-2021) in 1954, when he started work as a young reporter on the Western Daily Press in Bristol. He was only seventeen; she was four years older with two years of experience in the newsroom. She was ready to share her knowledge of newspapers with Stoppard, she found him amusing, and she was strikingly beautiful. They also shared a cultural horizon that stretched far beyond Bristol: Dunjohn, like Stoppard, had Jewish heritage, and her parents had met in Buenos Aires (from where her restless father had been unwilling to move back to England). Like Stoppard, she was ambitious: she had come to journalism from secretarial college at a time when newsrooms were overwhelmingly male, and had literary aspirations. Dunjohn soon became close to Stoppard, looking after him like a younger brother, introducing him to the theatre, encouraging his literary ambitions. On his part, Stoppard fell deeply in love. Isabel was the girl he would forever associate with sunshine and wine: more than fifty years later, he recalled to “dearest Dizi” that she had been his first love. The relationship grew more complicated in 1958 when Stoppard introduced her to his new friend Peter O’Toole, then an up-and-coming actor at the Bristol Old Vic. She promptly fell in love with O’Toole and had a relationship with the actor lasting about eighteen months. She followed O'Toole to London, taking a job as sub-editor and features writer on Housewife magazine. Tom Stoppard was capable of writing wonderful letters but he was a somewhat chaotic correspondent. He rarely dated his letters, sometimes forgot to sign them, and was inconsistent in page numbering. As a result it is hard to date the early letters in the current correspondence, or even be certain exactly how many separate letters are found in the collection (especially as some of the early letters are evidently incomplete). However, it is clear that the correspondence begins in the late 1950s, shortly after Isabel left Bristol for London. Stoppard was still in Bristol, now reviewing films for the Bristol Evening World. His feelings for her remained intense: in one letter he writes of his loathing of overexplicitness, whether this was in plays, in conversation, or in his raw and open letters to Isabel. This worry that he had been too open with her would occasionally haunt him in later years. He is also open with her about his literary ambitions, writing to her about his ideas (such as a play about two murderous critics which would eventually evolve into The Real Inspector Hound), and sending her squibs that he knew would make her laugh, such absurd dialogue between Lord Byron, Shakespeare, and Ann Hathaway, set in a coffee cellar in Montmartre, which he claims to be a scene from his new play. He also kept her up to date with more concrete developments, such as when he offered his first play, Walk on Water, to Alec Guinness’s agent, the subsequent news of Ralph Richardson’s interest, and the hope that Peter Brook might wish to direct. Stoppard’s most exuberant letters were written whilst travelling. This was a shared love: the two spent the summer of 1960 travelling around the Mediterranean together — he subsequently sent her two poems recalling these idyllic months (‘Pompei’ and ‘My Dream’). He also recalled an incident when he found her signet ring that she had lost on a beach in Elba the previous day: finding the ring was so unlikely and yet had happened so easily that he took it as a sign of almost religious significance. The following year, writing from an all-night café in Narbonne, where he spent the night ordering a succession of black coffees from an unsympathetic waiter, he describes his exhausting hitch-hike through France to Spain. They also spent two months together in Greece in the summer of 1963, then Stoppard went travelled around Yugoslavia — writing Isabel long and vividly descriptive letters from Split and Dubrovnik — before returning to London. Stoppard had moved to London in the summer of 1962 to take a job reviewing for the magazine Scene, but when the magazine went bankrupt in May 1963 he was left perilously insecure. Isabel Dunjohn had journalism jobs in London in the early 1960s, spent a year in Sardinia, and then found a job working in Belgrade for the Foreign Office. Her interest in politics and current affairs was always much greater than his: at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis he wrote to her that he just hoped the world wouldn’t get blown up before he had written all he wanted to write. Dunjohn met her future husband in Belgrade, and Stoppard married Jose Ingle in March 1965. In February 1966 he wrote that they had no money but he fantasised that his fortune would be made by his forthcoming novel – also admitting that Jose had her doubts about the likeliness of this outcome. He was soon writing about expectant fatherhood and various writing projects including the likelihood that his new play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and Dead, might be staged at the Royal Court. It was of course the play, not the novel, that would swiftly transform his fortunes. In the years that followed, as Stoppard’s career as a playwright gained momentum, his connection to Isabel Dunjohn remained deep — for example, he sent her mother a compassionate letter when she was seriously ill in 1970 — but their busy lives left little space for their old friendship. Stoppard was writing many of his greatest plays in the late 1960s and early 1970s, whilst Isabel’s Foreign Office job took her to Milan, Brussels and the Hague until her mother’s illness brought her and her Serbian husband back to Bristol. Correspondence dwindled until, in 1985, Stoppard was granted one of the great honours that the British establishment can bestow: an appearance on BBC radio’s Desert Island Discs. He revealed that the record he would save from the waves above all others was Bessie Smith’s ‘Careless Love’, which had been part of the soundtrack to his relationship with Isabel. When Isabel heard the programme and got back in touch, Stoppard replied with delight at the reconnection: he thought of her often and still wanted her as part of his life. In later years they settled into a regular companionable correspondence. The later letters range widely over his many writing projects and their complicated personal and family lives including such subjects as his difficult relationship with his stepfather, and his affair with Felicity Kendal (he claimed that the publicity attending the latter was enough to make him consider relocating to the Orkneys). The correspondence itself was a subject of more than one letter. Stoppard disliked the prospect of biography, and was uncomfortable with the thought of others reading his early letters to Isabel, but his position softened over the years, and after Isabel’s death he wrote to her son, giving his blessing for the family to decide on the letters' future without interference. Stoppard’s letters to Isabel are a wonderful example of the writing of one of the wittiest exponents of English prose of the past sixty years. They provide a uniquely candid portrait of the young and ambitious writer, and also document a life-long and deeply tender relationship that was evidently of great importance to both parties. In later years, reflecting back on their relationship, he admitted it had not brought him the ecstasy of later love affairs, but she had brought much happiness to his life (as well as the misery of unrequited love) and, above all, he had loved writing her letters. REFERENCES Hermione Lee, Tom Stoppard: A Life (2021)

View 1 of Lot 80: Tom Stoppard | Important collection of letters to Isabel Dunjohn, with related inscribed books, 1950s-2020s

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