Books

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.…

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.