"THE MOST INFLUENTIAL FANTASY NOVEL EVER WRITTEN": TOLKIEN CENTENARY LIMITED EDITION OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS, ILLUSTRATED AND SIGNED BY ALAN LEE

TOLKIEN, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The Two Towers. The Return of the King. London: Harper Collins, 1991. Thick octavo, original half dark blue leather and gray-blue cloth stamped in silver, all edges silver gilt, original matching cloth slipcase. $5200.

Limited single-volume edition of all three books of Tolkien's tour de force, issued in honor of the 100th anniversary of Tolkien's birth, number 173 of 250 copies signed by the illustrator, Alan Lee.

"The most influential fantasy novel ever written" (Clute & Grant, 951). Although immediately occasioned by his publisher's request for a sequel to The Hobbit (1937), Tolkien's incomparable epic draws on lore, legends and languages he had been creating since World War I. Published in three volumes for practical reasons (Tolkien always considered it a single novel), it is "one of [the 20th] century's lasting contributions to that borderland of literature between youth and age… [and] to that select list of books which continue through the ages to be read by children and adults with almost equal pleasure" (Eyre, 134-35). "Of all popular bestsellers, The Lord of the Rings is the one most likely to be read over and over again" (Shippey, Tolkien: Author of the Century, 306). Text illustrated with 50 specially commissioned paintings by Alan Lee, lead concept artist for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films and winner of the 1998 World Fantasy Award for Best Artist. An additional 250 copies for the U.S. and 200 copies for Australia were produced. Hammond & Anderson A5x. Fantasy and Horror 5-289. Pringle, Modern Fantasy, 60-61. Fantasy 100 Best, 161-62.

Fine condition.