The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring. 3rd Impression Printers Proof.
Unbound sheets of the 1954, 3rd impression FoTR. These are Allen & Unwin library copy printers proofs. Hand written- Checked 29.11.54, copyright page indicates Second impression December 1954, but hand written beneath Third impression January 1955. Minor corrections in three different style pens. One is likley to be Professor tolkien's, but there's not enough complete writing to tell properly. Untrimmed edges, various creases, rubbing and bends, well handled but very good overall.

Festival Art and Books US$ 5818.26 (EUR 4208.31)

the first copy of the last classic tolkien's own page proofs of the 1st edition with all his handwritten changes and corrections. Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings [London, 1953, 1954, 1955]. Page proofs of the 1st edition with tolkien's final changes, additions, corrections and deletions throughout the text in his own handwriting. The 3 volume master set is fine, complete and moreover includes many extra pages with variant readings, some of these accompanying pages with additional corrections by Tolkien. Other added material includes a note and sketch to the publisher, Rayner Unwin, about runes in volume I ("The picture facing page 312 cannot possibly go in upside down."), a signed presentation inscription giving the set to his proof reader (a bearable literary association), sequential proofs of all 3 title pages, a letter by letter handwritten transliteration of the blocks on the title page of volume I with 2 corrections to the runes that were overlooked until the 2nd printing, a scrap of the original manuscript, and a final typescript for 2 tables at the end of volume III, all neatly assembled and integrated. Bound in full multi-colored morocco by Donald Glaister in a spectacular panorama design of carved stone wall, marquetry wood forest and the mountains of Mordor beneath fiery Middle-earth skies. A fine set. Must be seen to be believed. 3 fine full morocco cases. 250,000 Pull on your pressure suit and plug in the oxygen, this is the high flying, ultimate copy of, what may prove, the book of the century. Seeking to create a new mythology, the origins of tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trace to 1917. By 1920, he had devised a multilayered background and a credible, abundant culture into which he dispensed characters, poems, romances, histories, languages, songs, geographies, genealogies, customs. art, science and law. He referred to a chronology, but wrote in every era, and sequence flowed from necessity, so earlier events were recalled during later ones while future events were implied or predicted. He called his world Middle-earth and began work on a Bible for it called The Silmarillion. Publication of a children's book (The Hobbit, 1937) gave the public a glimpse and in 1939 he proposed a sequel, an adult visit to Middle-earth called The Lord of the Rings. He wrote for 10 years and continued polishing right up to publication, as can be seen in these proofs. Today it is universally acclaimed as the towering mythic invention of our time, an incontestable classic and a monument to the pleasure of reading that will be widely savored as long as print is put to paper.

Biblioctopus

TOLKIEN, John Ronald Reuel (1892-1973). A collection of works in presentation, association and proof copies, and a series of fourteen letters, discussing the production of The Lord of the Rings, comprising:

# £58,750 # ($84,306) Christies London 16 November 2001

Lot Description TOLKIEN, John Ronald Reuel (1892-1973). A collection of works in presentation, association and proof copies, and a series of fourteen letters, discussing the production of The Lord of the Rings, comprising: LETTERS A series of eleven autograph letters signed and three typed letters signed ('Ronald Tolkien', 'Tolkien', 'Ronald', and 'JRRT') to George Sayer (one to Mrs George Sayer), Oxford and London, 7 August 1952 - 11 December 1971 and n.d., 25 pages, 8° and 4°, in autograph, and 5½ pages, 4°, typewritten, three envelopes; with a transcription (presumably by Sayer) of runes from The Hobbit. BOOKS A. The Lord of the Rings: (i) Proof The Fellowship of the Ring. London: Jarrold and Sons Limited for George Allen & Unwin Ltd, '1953' [sic]. 8° (218 x 140mm). (A few leaves lightly marked, pp.32-33 slightly affected by adhesive.) Original brown paper wrappers, the upper wrapper with pasted-on typewritten lettering-piece reading 'THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING , by , J.R.R. Tolkien', and ink inscription 'Not less than 21/- , nor more than 25/-' (slightly marked, corners a little dog-eared, short tears at head and tail of spine causing minor losses). PROOF COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION. In this copy the number '12' on p.21 has been corrected in pencil, and the uncorrected errors on p.48, ll.13-14, p.166, l.41, and p.197, l.40 have been retained. The illustrations which occur on pp.59, 319 and 333 of the first edition have been omitted. For the first edition cf. Hammond and Anderson A5ai; West A20. The Two Towers. London: Jarrold and Sons Limited for George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1954. 8° (223 x 143mm). (Short tear affecting text on 6/1, short marginal tears on 19/7, 21/3-4 and 22/8.) Original brown paper wrappers, with two typewritten lettering-pieces pasted onto upper wrapper, reading 'about 21s.' and 'THE TWO TOWERS , by , J.R.R. Tolkien' (corners slightly frayed, short tears at head and tail of spine). PROOF COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION. This copy has the incorrect 'all the season of the year' reading on p.111, l.34, but the correct 'may like' reading on p.350, l.31 (misprinted as 'maylike' in the first edition). For the first edition cf. Hammond and Anderson A5aii; West A21 (erroneously dated 1955). The Return of the King. London: Jarrold and Sons Limited for George Allen & Unwin Ltd, '1954' [sic]. 8° (200 x 154mm). Circa 295 loose galley sheets, printed on rectos only, and the loose galley sheets of the Appendices, calligraphic manuscript title 'The Return , of the , King. , Appendices , pp.313-416' in tolkien's hand, paginated 313-416, pp.379-383 and 401-403 in tolkien's hand, corrected by Tolkien in red, blue and black inks, the first leaf with printer's inkstamp dated 29 June 1955 and dated by Tolkien 'received July 2'. (Some leaves a little frayed or occasionally torn and marked, p.360 erroneously inserted between pp. 377 and 378.) The main text in loose sheets, the Appendices held together with a paper fastener. PROOF COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION, THE APPENDICES CORRECTED THROUGHOUT BY TOLKIEN. For the first edition cf. Hammond and Anderson A5aiii; West A22. (ii) First edition The Fellowship of the Ring. London: Jarrold and Sons Limited for George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1954. 8° (221 x 140mm). Folding map and full-page map printed in red and black after Christopher Tolkien, line illustrations after J.R.R. Tolkien. Original red cloth titled in gilt on the spine, dustwrapper (spine slightly cocked, lower hinge split by folding map, dustwrapper torn across upper panel and at extremities causing minor losses). Provenance: 'George Sayer' (inscription on upper pastedown). FIRST EDITION. Hammond and Anderson A5ai; West A20. The Two Towers. London: Jarrold and Sons Limited for George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1954. 8° (221 x 140mm). Folding map printed in red and black after Christopher Tolkien. (Small mark on text of pp.344-345.) Original red cloth titled in gilt on the spine, dustwrapper (spine slightly cocked, light marking on joints, dustwrapper lightly marked and with small tears causing minor losses at edges). FIRST EDITION. Hammond and Anderson A5aii; West A21 (erroneously dated 1955). The Return of the King. London: Jarrold and Sons Limited for George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1955. 8° (219 x 140mm). Folding map printed in red and black after Christopher Tolkien. Original red cloth titled in gilt on the spine, dustwrapper (spine slightly cocked, dustwrapper lightly marked and with small tears causing minor losses at edges). FIRST EDITION, FIRST STATE, with signature '4' on p.49. Hammond and Anderson A5aiii; West A22. B. Other Works (iii) The Hobbit or There and Back Again. London: Unwin Brothers Limited for George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1959. 8° (184 x 121mm). Colour-printed frontispiece and line illustrations after Tolkien. Original decorated cloth, map endpapers and pictorial dustwrapper after Tolkien (slightly faded at foot of spine, dustwrapper with small, neatly-repaired tears at edges). Eleventh impression. SIGNED ON THE TITLE 'J.R.R. TOLKIEN'. (iv) Farmer Giles of Ham ... or ... The Rise and Wonderful Adventures of Farmer Giles, Lord of Tame, Count of Worminghall and King of the Little Kingdom. London: Unwin Brothers Limited for George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1949. 8° (199 x 130mm). Colour-printed frontispiece and plate, and line illustrations after Pauline Baynes. Original decorated cloth, dustwrapper with design after Baynes (edges of dustwrapper with minor tears and chipping). Provenance: B.H. Blackwell (bookseller's ticket on upper pastedown). FIRST EDITION. SIGNED ON THE TITLE 'J.R.R. TOLKIEN'. Hammond and Anderson A4; West A17. (v) 'The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son'. Corrected proof sheets of pp.[1]-18 of: Geoffrey BULLOUGH (editor). Essays and Studies 1953 Being Volume Six of the New Series of Essays and Studies Collected for The English Association. London: Wyman & Sons, Ltd for John Murray, 1953. 8° (216 x 140mm). Collation: [A]4-8 B1-4, 9 stapled leaves. (Variable light browning.) PROOF SHEETS, CORRECTED THROUGHOUT BY TOLKIEN. The manuscript corrections occur on each page (save 16 and 18), amending typographic errors and adding headlines to the rectos of ll. [A]5-B4. For Essays and Studies 1953 cf. Hammond and Anderson B21; West A19. (vi) The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and other Verses from the Red Book. London: Jarrold and Sons Ltd for George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1962. 8° (222 x 142mm). Illustrations and decorations after Pauline Baynes, some printed in orange and black. Original paper-covered pictorial boards and pictorial dustwrapper after Baynes (edges of dustwrapper a little rubbed and with a few short, clean tears). FIRST EDITION. Hammond and Anderson A6; West A26. (vii) Smith of Wootton Major. London: Unwin Brothers Ltd for George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1967. 12° (149 x 105mm). Frontispiece, line illustrations and decorations after Pauline Baynes. Original glazed-paper covered boards with design after Baynes (extremities lightly rubbed). FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE OF BINDING. PRESENTATION COPY, with inscribed slip tipped onto upper pastedown 'George , from J.R.R.T. , With best wishes to you , and Moira'. Hammond and Anderson A9a, binding 1; West A34. (viii) The Road Goes Ever On A Song Cycle. Poems by J.R.R. Tolkien music by Donald Swann. London: John Dickens and Co Ltd for George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1968. 4° (278 x 214mm). Printed in red, black and grey. Calligraphic decorations after Tolkien. Original paper-covered boards, dustwrapper with calligraphic design after Tolkien. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. CARD SIGNED 'J.R.R. TOLKIEN' tipped onto front free endpaper, and George Sayer's invitation to the London premiere of The Road Goes Ever On tipped onto the upper pastedown. Hammond and Anderson B28b;West A32 (erroneously dated 1967). Provenance: George Sayer (b.1914). AN IMPORTANT COLLECTION OF LETTERS, PROOFS AND FIRST EDITIONS SHOWING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS. The earliest letter in the series asks for the return of a manuscript of The Lord of the Rings, as George Allen & Unwin, the publishers, are now 'clamouring to reconsider' it; the following letter, to Mrs Sayer, refers to an 'astonishing dash to O[xford] and back' by Sayer with the manuscript, and promises 'plenty to [their] taste' in the second half of the work: 'It's pretty well a crescendo until at least Chap. 4 of the last "book". It is on the rallentando and the coda that I am specially anxious for your opinion'. A letter of December 1952 refers hopefully to publication, but by 8 March 1953 Tolkien has 'not even sent in any copy for the "Lord" yet ... it will have to go more or less as it is'; the same letter asks for suggestions for the titles for the individual volumes demanded by Allen & Unwin, and refers to the last book, 'minus on your advice the Epilogue, though I should like some other device for conveying the information it contains'. An undated letter written later the same month contains a new plea for help, this time in writing a publicity blurb for The Lord of the Rings: 'I find myself quite unable to think of anything that is not too apologetic for "publicity" or too much the reverse to contemplate. It is like being asked ... why you are fond of one of your children'. More than a decade later, in March 1966, two letters return to tolkien's debt of gratitude for Sayer's help, and offer to send him an edition: 'you have never had any token of my gratitude to you for your great kindness and generous support and help in the matter of The L.R. in the dark days of doubt'; 'You did much! You made tape-recordings. You got estimates of printing costs. You were extremely kind to me, at a low ebb. And I believed your praise, somehow more than anyone else's'. In addition to their involvement in the genesis of the Lord of the Rings, the Sayers were close friends, and the letters refer to tolkien's delight in his visits to their home in Malvern - 'I resemble a hobbit at any rate in being moderately and cheerfully domesticated, though no cook' - and share anxieties and stresses - predominately over his work-load as a professor at Oxford, and about his wife's health and the difficulties of moving house - as well as pleasures - 'I am about to acquire, or should I say solicit the association of, a Cat'. Other literary ventures are referred to: his poem 'The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son' (see v above, tolkien's corrected proof sheets) 'takes the form of a dramatic dialogue (in alliterative verse) between two 'Anglo-Saxons' after the Battle of Maldon - of about the length of the original poem!'. A series of letters in 1966 refer to the Tolkiens' golden wedding celebrations, as part of which Donald Swann is to perform one of his settings of Tolkiens' verse (see viii above); the last letter in the series briefly acknowledges condolences on his wife's death. Whilst staying at Sayer's house in Malvern (where he taught English) in 1952, Tolkien made a series of recordings of extracts from The Lord of the Rings: it was his first encounter with a tape recorder, and he found it necessary to exorcise the machine by intoning the Lord's Prayer in Gothic into the mouthpiece - in two letters of Summer 1953 here Tolkien refers to his BBC recordings which were inspired by these experiments. In a letter to Rayner Unwin enclosing the Sayer's blurb for The Lord of the Rings Tolkien refers to Sayer as 'the most normal reader and liker of the work that I could think of ... the blurb ... surprised me ... 'greatest living poet' is absurd'.

the pre-publication proof state of the text including an early printed state of the prefatory verse. Wayne G. Hammond notes that first galley proofs were sent to Tolkien during July and August 1953. On 19 August the volume was put into page proofs and Tolkien was "sent page proofs of The Fellowship of the Ring with corresponding galleys" on 29 September 1953. Proofs of the preliminaries were sent to the author on 1 December and "further proofs" two days later. Additional queries and revisions (including negotiations relating to the maps and other illustrations) were forthcoming, but these date from after the publication of this proof copy. The first edition was published on 29 July 1954. It is unclear at what stage the publishers produced proof copies for distribution. Arthur Ransome and Naomi Mitchison appear to have received proof copies dated from 1953. Hammond notes that "the publisher's cost book records 20 copies bound in wrappers... presumably for review and samples" but these are likely to comprise review copies printed in 1954. The 1953 proof has several distinctive features beyond the date of publication. The decorative border on pp.[2-3] is lacking, as is a date on the title-page. Page numbers '7' and '9' are present here but are later removed. Text on page 8 is, later, re-set (with additional text at the foot of the page added and the original changed). Other minor re-setting occasionally occurs and there are examples of text presumably incorrectly set by the printer (Strider states that "I shall try and get lost as soon as possible" on page 184 of this copy but the first edition text reads "I shall try to get lost...", for example). Page number '16' is incorrectly printed as '18' and '21' is incorrectly printed as '12'. tolkien's note at the end of the volume ("Here ends the first part of the history of the War of the Ring...") is not present and the publisher's colophon is similarly lacking. Once cause of concern and extensive correspondence during production was the maps and illustrations. These are omitted in this proof. The map present on page [25] of the first edition is here represented by a blank page. There is no folding map at the rear of the volume. The ring inscription on p.59 is, similarly, represented by blank space. The Gate of Moria is omitted from p.[319] as is the illustration of Balin's tomb on p.333. The verse ("One Ring to rule them all") appears here in two states. Hammond notes that on 29 March 1954 Tolkien "finds an error in the Ring verse (bk.1, ch.2), corrected before publication." The penultimate line is printed here with a full-stop, later removed. However, the appearance of the verse at the front of the volume includes the line "One Ring to bring them all and in the shadow bind them" later changed to "One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them". Whether a printer's error or an authorial revision the text is an early variant state.

Sotheby's 4,200 GBP 8 july 2004

The Fellowship of the Ring. FIRST EDITION, FIRST IMPRESSION, map, original red cloth, lacking folding map, slight browning to end-papers; The Two Towers. PROOF COPY, original brown wrappers; The Return of the King. PROOF COPY, original brown wrappers; all 8vo, some light soiling to bindings, minimal fraying to extremities of wrappers (3) This lot contains 1 item(s). It is unclear whether the first volume of The Lord of the Rings was first issued in a proof copy bound in wrappers. The copy offered here shows no distinguishing features to suggest it is not a first impression of the first edition. (The signature mark `4' is present on page 49). The other two volumes, bound in brown wrappers, are both dated 1954 (The Return of the King was to be published in 1955). Neither include folding maps which do not appear to have been completed until later.

3,346 GBP Sotheby's 12 July 2002

8vo, PROOF COPY, original brown wrappers with two labels laid-down to upper wrapper, minor chip to upper wrapper and first three leaves, minimal fraying to extremities of wrappers The fifth leaf (recto and verso) merely states `SYNOPSIS' without the text of the first edition. The typed labels note ``THE TWO TOWERS / by / J.R.R. Tolkien'' and ``about 21s.''

600 GBP Sotheby's 10 july 2003

https://tolkienlibrary.com/press/Lord_of_the_Rings_Proof_copies_on_auction.php

https://tolkienlibrary.com/tolkien-book-store/clp0118.php

https://tolkienlibrary.com/tolkien-book-store/clp0119.php

The two towers: being the second part of The Lord of the Rings ... Uncorrected proof copy of the 1st edition, original brown paper wrappers, lacking spine and lower wrapper, last page (p. 351) detached and with tears at inner margin, 8vo., London: Allen & Unwin, 1954Note: This proof copy was given as a present to the writer Naomi Mitchison, whose family can recall her reading it to them. According to Mitchison family tradition, Tolkien carried out the final corrections on "The Two Towers" while visiting Naomi Mitchison at Carradale. In some places, the proof copy has text which was corrected or modified for the final edition; however it does not have any hand-written corrections. It does not include the folding map which would appear to have been completed later.

Lyon & Turnbull