Books

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1963. First American edition, later impressions. Near Fine/Near Fine. [undated, ca. 1963]. Three volumes. First American edition, early printings: 13th, 13th and 16th printings respectively. In publisher's original blue cloth stamped in gilt with folding maps at rear. Near Fine with bumped corners, small bookseller tickets to front pastedowns in all volumes, maps intact at rear. In Near Fine dust unclipped jackets with mild spine fading and light edge wear; short closed tear to head of The Return of the King..

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first of three volumes of the epic novel The Lord of the Rings by the English author J.R.R. Tolkien. It is followed by The Two Towers and The Return of the King. The story begins with the discovery of the One Ring, which had been lost for centuries, and follows a group of heroes who set out on a quest to destroy it and prevent the dark lord Sauron from fulfilling his malevolent designs.

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.