{"product_id":"the-lord-of-the-rings-signed-by-j-r-r-tolkien","title":"The Lord of the Rings Signed by J. R. R. Tolkien","description":"\u003cp\u003e6WS J. R. R. Tolkien. London: George Allen \u0026amp; Unwin, 1968. \u003cem\u003eFirst Single Volume Edition \u003cstrong\u003eSIGNED by Tolkien.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNotes\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"n6owBd awi2gc\" data-sfc-cp=\"\" data-sfc-root=\"ep\" data-sfc-cb=\"\" data-hveid=\"CAEIAhAA\" data-complete=\"true\" data-processed=\"true\" data-copy-service-computed-style='font-family: \"Google Sans\", \"Helvetica Neue\", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin: 12px 0px 16px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0px rgb(10, 10, 10);'\u003eFirst published as a trilogy between 1954 and 1955, \u003cem class=\"eujQNb\" data-sfc-root=\"ep\" data-sfc-cb=\"\" data-complete=\"true\" data-processed=\"true\" data-copy-service-computed-style='font-family: \"Google Sans\", \"Helvetica Neue\", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0px rgb(10, 10, 10);'\u003eThe Lord of the Rings\u003c\/em\u003e stands as the monumental high-water mark of modern epic fantasy literature. The narrative chronicles the perilous quest of Frodo Baggins, a humble hobbit tasked with destroying the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom to defeat the dark lord Sauron. Set in the intricately mapped world of Middle-earth, the story weaves a timeless tapestry of fellowship, corruption, and the enduring power of ordinary individuals against overwhelming evil. Tolkien’s work fundamentally transformed the fantasy genre, migrating it away from simple fairy tales into a complex literary landscape enriched with original mythologies, deep historical lore, and fully constructed languages.\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"n6owBd awi2gc\" data-sfc-cp=\"\" data-sfc-root=\"ep\" data-sfc-cb=\"\" data-hveid=\"CAEIAhAA\" data-complete=\"true\" data-processed=\"true\" data-copy-service-computed-style='font-family: \"Google Sans\", \"Helvetica Neue\", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin: 12px 0px 16px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0px rgb(10, 10, 10);'\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"n6owBd awi2gc\" data-sfc-cp=\"\" data-sfc-root=\"ep\" data-sfc-cb=\"\" data-hveid=\"CAEIAhAA\" data-complete=\"true\" data-processed=\"true\" data-copy-service-computed-style='font-family: \"Google Sans\", \"Helvetica Neue\", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin: 12px 0px 16px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0px rgb(10, 10, 10);'\u003eThe epic was born from the profound philological and academic genius of \u003cspan class=\"Yjhzub\"\u003eJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien\u003c\/span\u003e, a brilliant Oxford professor of Anglo-Saxon and English Language. Tolkien spent decades studying ancient Germanic, Norse, and Celtic myths, viewing \u003cem class=\"eujQNb\" data-sfc-root=\"ep\" data-sfc-cb=\"\" data-complete=\"true\" data-processed=\"true\" data-copy-service-computed-style='font-family: \"Google Sans\", \"Helvetica Neue\", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0px rgb(10, 10, 10);'\u003eThe Lord of the Rings\u003c\/em\u003e not merely as a fictional narrative, but as a vast vessel for his engineered Elvish languages (such as Quenya and Sindarin). To keep his creative myth-making separate from his serious academic publications, Tolkien published his early works under his full name, but adopted his universally recognized initials, \u003cspan class=\"Yjhzub\"\u003eJ.R.R. Tolkien\u003c\/span\u003e, for his fiction. His experience as a communications officer on the blood-stained battlefields of World War I deeply informed the somber, elegiac tone of the books, infusing the struggles of Middle-earth with a realistic understanding of trauma, industrialized warfare, and the loss of pristine wilderness. \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"n6owBd awi2gc\" data-sfc-cp=\"\" data-sfc-root=\"ep\" data-sfc-cb=\"\" data-hveid=\"CAEIAxAA\" data-complete=\"true\" data-processed=\"true\" data-copy-service-computed-style='font-family: \"Google Sans\", \"Helvetica Neue\", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin: 12px 0px 16px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0px rgb(10, 10, 10);'\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"n6owBd awi2gc\" data-sfc-cp=\"\" data-sfc-root=\"ep\" data-sfc-cb=\"\" data-hveid=\"CAEIAxAA\" data-complete=\"true\" data-processed=\"true\" data-copy-service-computed-style='font-family: \"Google Sans\", \"Helvetica Neue\", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin: 12px 0px 16px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0px rgb(10, 10, 10);'\u003eA monumental moment in the book’s material history occurred in 1968 when the original British publisher, \u003cspan class=\"Yjhzub\"\u003eGeorge Allen \u0026amp; Unwin\u003c\/span\u003e, issued the very first \u003cspan class=\"Yjhzub\"\u003esingle-volume paperback edition\u003c\/span\u003e of the masterpiece. Up until this point, the text had always been divided into three separate books due to post-war paper shortages and publishing costs. This landmark 1968 edition brought the entire epic together into a single, massive volume, famously bound in a striking pictorial wrapper after illustrations by Pauline Baynes. Ironically, back in 1964, \u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003eTolkien reportedly rejected a separate publisher seeking to produce paperback editions of his book by stating that \u003cspan class=\"Yjhzub\"\u003ehe would never allow his great works to appear in so \"degenerate a form\" as the paperback book. T\u003c\/span\u003eoday, this specific 1968 printing—marketed at the time as a portable, budget-friendly option for the surging counter-culture student movement—is highly coveted by antiquarian collectors and this copy specifically holds great additional value as it is signed by Tolkien himself. \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"n6owBd awi2gc\" data-sfc-cp=\"\" data-sfc-root=\"ep\" data-sfc-cb=\"\" data-hveid=\"CAEIAxAA\" data-complete=\"true\" data-processed=\"true\" data-copy-service-computed-style='font-family: \"Google Sans\", \"Helvetica Neue\", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin: 12px 0px 16px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0px rgb(10, 10, 10);'\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"n6owBd awi2gc\" data-sfc-cp=\"\" data-sfc-root=\"ep\" data-sfc-cb=\"\" data-hveid=\"CAEIAxAA\" data-complete=\"true\" data-processed=\"true\" data-copy-service-computed-style='font-family: \"Google Sans\", \"Helvetica Neue\", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin: 12px 0px 16px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0px rgb(10, 10, 10);'\u003e50,000 copies of the first single volume edition of \u003cem\u003eThe Lord of the Rings \u003c\/em\u003ewere printed in the introduction print run in 1968. In order to encourage booksellers to place large orders for this edition, George Allen \u0026amp; Unwin promised that is a bookshop subscribed for 100 copies or more, they would remove an additional copy autographed by the author. This is one of those copies. \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"n6owBd awi2gc\" data-sfc-cp=\"\" data-sfc-root=\"ep\" data-sfc-cb=\"\" data-hveid=\"CAEIAxAA\" data-complete=\"true\" data-processed=\"true\" data-copy-service-computed-style='font-family: \"Google Sans\", \"Helvetica Neue\", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin: 12px 0px 16px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0px rgb(10, 10, 10);'\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"n6owBd awi2gc\" data-sfc-cp=\"\" data-sfc-root=\"ep\" data-sfc-cb=\"\" data-hveid=\"CAEIAxAA\" data-complete=\"true\" data-processed=\"true\" data-copy-service-computed-style='font-family: \"Google Sans\", \"Helvetica Neue\", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin: 12px 0px 16px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0px rgb(10, 10, 10);'\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDescription \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"n6owBd awi2gc\" data-sfc-cp=\"\" data-sfc-root=\"ep\" data-sfc-cb=\"\" data-hveid=\"CAEIAxAA\" data-complete=\"true\" data-processed=\"true\" data-copy-service-computed-style='font-family: \"Google Sans\", \"Helvetica Neue\", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin: 12px 0px 16px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0px rgb(10, 10, 10);'\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"n6owBd awi2gc\" data-sfc-cp=\"\" data-sfc-root=\"ep\" data-sfc-cb=\"\" data-hveid=\"CAEIAxAA\" data-complete=\"true\" data-processed=\"true\" data-copy-service-computed-style='font-family: \"Google Sans\", \"Helvetica Neue\", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin: 12px 0px 16px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0px rgb(10, 10, 10);'\u003eOriginal pictorial wrappers. Uncommonly clean copy. SIGNED by Tolkien to the title page. Spine is expectedly sunfaded to a small degree but retains more of the original yellow hue than most other examples of this same edition. Housed in a bespoke morocco clamshell box with gilt lettering and designs to cover and spine with red leather label to spine. Excellent condition inscribed by the author.\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Moons Rare Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56700403515558,"sku":null,"price":32500.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/moons-rare-books.myshopify.com\/products\/the-lord-of-the-rings-signed-by-j-r-r-tolkien","provider":"Moons Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}