The Silmarillion
by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien
George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd, 1st edition 1977
A lifetime’s work, long in gestation and eventually published four years after the author’s death, being assembled and edited by Tolkien’s son Christopher.
Note: 1st impression printed by Billing & Sons Limited.
Hardback. Publisher’s dark blue cloth with gilt title and decoration to spine; tinted blue to top edge of page-block. In a dustwrapper with original price of £4.95 to front flap. 365pp plus map facing p.128 and a fold-out map to rear. Size: 9 x 6 inches approx. (228mm x 148mm).
Lettering lightly sunned to spine of dustwrapper but still with good colour. Cloth clean, spine gilt bright; sharp corners to boards. Pages clean throughout; no inscriptions; fore-edge to some pages lightly ‘nicked’ or impressed*, however mostly evident to last couple of pages where the map is inserted.
Overall, a particularly fresh, clean copy which appears unread – really rather lovely.
– – – – –
References
tolkienBooks.net | An Illustrated Tolkien Bibliography
*Affects the final two leaves of each eight leaf gathering to a lesser or greater extent. I’ve never seen it documented however from the copies I have seen or handled this appears to be a common occurrence with the first impression, and presumably only affecting a certain batch of the print run.
