The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of the Lord of the Rings

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, the Riverside Press, 1954. First American Edition, first impression. Octavo; Walter Lorraine-illustrated dust jacket with flaps lettered in red; blue cloth stamped in gilt; yellow-orange topstain; 423pp.; fold-out map to rear. Dust jacket chipped along edges and spine; dampstaining along spine principally visible at verso; rubbing. Shelfwear to boards; staining along edges of front board and spine; binding sound; moderate to heavy foxing to endpapers and edges of textblock; interior else unmarked; still a Very Good copy. The first volume of Tolkien's epic fantasy was praised by some (W.H. Auden and Naomi Mitchison) and derided by others (Edmund Wilson in his "Oo Those Awful Orcs!" article), but nevertheless it remains one of the most popular and beloved works of the twentieth century. Scholar Tom Shippey believes Tolkien's work more than mere escapism, observing, ".his continuing appeal rests not on mere charm or strangeness. but on a deeply serious response to what will be seen in the end as the major issues of his century: the origin and nature of evil; human existence in Middle-Earth, without the support of divine revelation; cultural relativity; and the corruptions and continuities of language." First printings of either the Mifflin or the Allen & Unwin editions rather scarce in retail. References: Hammond A5 b.i Tom Shipped, "J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century." Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001. p. IX.…