The Lord of the Rings.: The Fellowship of the Ring; The Two Towers; The Return of the King.

London: George Allen and Unwin, 1954-55. A fine set of Tolkien's influential masterpiece First editions, first impressions of The Two Towers and The Return of the King. "Second impression" of The Fellowship of the Ring. Tolkien's work is one of the most popular and influential works of literature in the 20th century, containing richly rendered detail of a new mythological world, not yet surpassed.
C. S. Lewis wrote that "no imaginary world has been projected which is at once as multifarious and so true to its own inner laws; none so seemingly objective, so disinfected from the taint of an author's merely individual psychology; none so relevant to the actual human situation yet so free from allegory". Tolkien, a noted scholar of Old English, conceived the idea for his tales set in "Middle Earth" while in the trenches of the First World War; its immense influence has been felt ever since publication.
Hammond and Anderson state that the publisher's request for a second impression of The Fellowship of the Ring caused difficulty at the printers. Jarrold & Sons had distributed the type after printing the first impression and they therefore suggested that they might reprint by photo-offset from first impression sheets. The publisher rejected this proposal, as the quality of photo-offset printing was not as clear as printing from letterpress. The printer therefore had to reset the volume and no one at the publisher's seems to have known about the resetting. Tolkien did not see a new proof. In strict bibliographical terms, the "second impression" of this title is therefore a "second edition, first impression" and, as noted by Hammond and Anderson, the printers "in resetting introduced new errors, some of which have remained in print for many years". The binding is slightly shorter than the other two volumes.
This copy of The Return of the King is in Hammond and Anderson's first state (signature mark "4" present on page 49 and lines of type sagging in the middle). The conclusions of the bibliographers have since been challenged. 3 volumes, octavo. Original red cloth, lettering to spines in gilt, top edges red. With dust jackets. Folding map in red and black at rear of each volume. Slight leaning to spines; a bright set in near-fine condition. Extremities of dust jackets very slightly frayed, slightly toned with minor staining to jacket for volume three; else fine and unclipped examples. Bleiler, Supernatural Fiction 1606; 1607; 1608; Hammond & Anderson A5a i (see p. 97), ii, & iii.