J.R.R. Tolkien – The Silmarillion – First Edition 1977 – Printed by William Clowes & Sons

Description

First edition, first printing of The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, published by George Allen & Unwin, London in 1977. This is a near fine copy free from internal inscriptions, the boards are tight and free from notable chips and marks, the text blocks are bright and white with only minor browning to the top edge, the map is present to the rear and is unmarked and tightly folded. This scarce edition printed by William Clowes & Sons with a near fine dust wrapper, with minor bumping to extremities.

Edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, assisted by the fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay. It tells of Eä, a fictional universe that includes the Blessed Realm of Valinor, the once-great region of Beleriand, the sunken island of Númenor, and the continent of Middle-earth, where Tolkien’s most popular works—The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings—are set. After the success of The Hobbit, Tolkien’s publisher Stanley Unwin requested a sequel, and Tolkien offered a draft of the writings that would later become The Silmarillion. Unwin rejected this proposal, calling the draft obscure and “too Celtic”, so Tolkien began working on a new story that eventually became The Lord of the Rings.