The Silmarillion
Allen & Unwin, 1977.
First edition. Navy cloth, lettered in gilt and emblem to the spine, in original dustwrapper, with emblems designed by J.R.R. Tolkien. Top edge blue. Folding map of Beleriand printed in black and red. A fine copy in a fine, bright dustwrapper with none of the usual fading to the spine.
Tolkien's life's work, begun during the First World War, worked on intermittently before, during and after the publications of The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord Of The Rings (1954-55).
After Tolkien's death in 1973, the work was still not completed. Many manuscripts for sections of it survived, and these multi-layered documents, often amended and revised over many years, had to be worked through by his son Christopher Tolkien and Guy Gavriel Kay.
By late 1976 the disparate source material had been honed into the text of a single, coherent work. Both domestic and export copies were printed simultaneously in Britain, numbering 200,000 in all, with a further 75,000 book club editions printed.
Hammond A15b.
Stock ID: 45705
