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

TOLKIEN, J.R.R.

$75,000.00

Item Number: 134590

London: George Allen and Unwin, 1967.

Second editions of the author’s classic trilogy, signed by Tolkien in each volume. Octavo, 3 volumes, original cloth, folding maps. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page, “Signed for Ethel May with love J. R. R. Tolkien.” Volumes two and three are signed by J.R.R. Tolkien on the half-title page. The recipient, Ethel Burchfield was the wife of Robert Burchfield, a lexicographer and scholar who was mentored by Tolkien. Burchfield studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was tutored by Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Burchfield would go on to develop a Tolkien-like fascination with linguistics and would become the editor of the Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary. The two men remained friends and correspondents for much of their lives with Burchfield later crediting Tolkien as “the puckish fisherman who drew me into his glittering philological net.” Near fine in near fine dust jackets, with “E. M. Burchfield St. Peters. XII 1967.” Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box made by The Harcourt Bindery. An exceptional set, most rare and desirable signed, with noted provenance.

The Lord of the Rings began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's fantasy novel The Hobbit, but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in stages between 1937 and 1949, much of it during World War II in letters to his son, "and finally, having polished it to his own satisfaction, published it as a trilogy from 1954 to 1955, a volume at a time, impatiently awaited by a growing audience. It is considered one of this century’s lasting contributions to that borderland of literature between youth and age. It seems destined to become this century’s contribution to that select list of books which continue through the ages to be read by children and adults with almost equal pleasure." (Eyre, 134-35). It has went on to become the third best selling novel of all-time with 150 million copies sold.