THE FATHER CHRISTMAS LETTERS.**

UK,slim Qrto wraps/softback,no dw/dj - as issued,1st edn thus.[UK,slim Qrto HB,1st edn originally published in 1976. Issued without a dw/dj,these were to be issued on subsequent US edns only.The UK HB 1st edn,was published with a low print run,believed to be only 50,000 copies worldwide.Two years later the first 8vo softback edn was issued by Unwin Hyman (London) in 1978 and then a new Qrto s/back edn,in 1990. HarperCollins (London) then republished it again in Qrto s/back in 1993.] NFINE.No owner inscrptn,no dw/dj - card covers - as issued.Bright,crisp,clean, glossy,colour pictorial illustrated wraps/card covers with black and red lettering to front cover; with negligible shelf-wear or bumping to edges.No nicks or tears present; minor oblique creases to both corners of rear cover and a partial vertical crease (naturally caused by opening the cover to read the book) on front cover, towards the spine/backstrip's gutter's edge.Top+fore-edges generally bright and clean; contents bright,tight and near pristine - no intentional dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corner tips - would appear unread - apart from my own collation. UK,slim Qrto wraps,1st edn thus,48pp [unpaginated] includes colour vignette illustrated half-title page, colour pictorial illustrated double-page title page and colour pictorial facsimile letter illustrated frntis,8 full-colour,full-page illustrations,profuse part-page and margin colour illustrations throughout,and an appendix with an illustrated b/w Goblin alphabet.
Enchantingly illustrated in colour throughout by J.R.R Tolkien himself.
A series of letters J.R.R. Tolkien wrote and illustrated (as Father Christmas) for his children,beginning in 1925 and continuing for over 20 years.When Tolkien's eldest son, John,was three years old in 1920,the first of The Father Christmas Letters arrived,addressed from the North Pole. For over 20 years the annual news appeared,stamped with its Polar stamp,set out in its unmistakable script (a bit shaky as Father Christmas after all,was nearly two thousand years old,quite apart from the weather) and decorated with paintings and sketches.The text of the letters,many of them in facsimile,and the colour pictures are brought together in this book.They describe local problems and events, tell of Father Christmas's assistant North Polar Bear, and his riotous nephews,of the raiding goblins and the elves who came to the rescue.And there's a Goblin alphabet which you may use too.A really superb softback edn copy in an acceptable,collectable condition.An unusual item/ephemera in Tolkien's bold style and will be an important and welcome addition to the Tolkien canon.
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