Books

George Allen and Unwin, 1954. first, advance review copy. very good/very good. Advance review copy of volume one. All three books and dust jackets are first printings in very good condition. Some bleeding from covers at edges of The Return of the King. George Allen and Unwin, 1954, 1954, and 1955. Housed in a custom-made slipcase.

The second volume of J.R.R. Tolkien's high fantasy adventure The Lord of the Rings, 'The Two Towers', continues the story of the quest to destroy the One Ring. The fellowship is scattered, and its members take different paths in order to combat the spread of darkness by the evil Sauron and his allies. New alliances are formed and epic battles are fought, setting the stage for the story's climax in the final volume.

The primary method to authenticate first editions of The Lord of the Rings involves inspecting the publication details within each volume. Look for the publisher's name, typically stated as "George Allen & Unwin Ltd," on the title page. Verify the dates on the back of the title page: the initial two books should bear the 1954 date, while the third should display 1955, without any subsequent dates. A common query we encounter concerns editions where later books in the series are listed on the dust jacket. This situation often prompts the question, "Can it still be a first edition?" For many books—such as James Bond novels or the Harry Potter series—it's crucial to ensure that the dust jacket or the author's list of works doesn't mention books published afterward, as this would indicate that your copy isn't a first edition. However, The Lord of the Rings deviates significantly from this standard. As the series was originally conceived as a single lengthy book and divided into three due to financial considerations, the publishers anticipated subsequent releases and utilized the dust jacket flaps to advertise them.