J.R.R.; Christopher TOLKIEN ( editor ). The Silmarillion.

by TOLKIEN

£300 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd · No longer available

TOLKIEN, J.R.R.; Christopher TOLKIEN ( editor ). The Silmarillion. London: George Allen and Unwin. 1977. 8vo. Wove paper. Original dark blue cloth lettered in gilt to spine with decoration after Tolkien’s heraldic device of Lúthien Tinúviel stamped to upper portion of spine, top edge stained dark blue, in the dustwrapper with heraldic device of Lúthien Tinúviel outlined in white to front panel and five further heraldic devices: Fingolfin,Eärendil, Idril Celebrindal, Elwë, and Fëanor (also by Tolkien and outlined in white) to rear panel; pp. 365, [3, foldout map affixed to second blank]; dust-jacket clean and bright with only a slight crease to front flap and back flap’s top left corner, small crease to upper edge of jacket spine and a small abrasion to front of jacket; slight offsetting to endpapers; a lovely copy with the binding square and the blue topstain and dust-jacket spine unfaded; near fine, in a like wrapper. A lovely first edition, first printing (the domestic issue, priced £4.95 to front flap and printed by Billings Sons) of the work, published posthumously, that underpins Tolkien’s works of Middle Earth. Described on the jacket as “the central stock of J. R. R. Tolkien's imaginative writing, […], a sombre vision in the mode of myth and legend”, The Silmarillion developed throughout the author’s life and was posthumously edited and prepared for publication from manuscripts by the author's son, Christopher. The work’s origins precede The Hobbit , which was independ

• Binding: Hardcover

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