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The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954
#cb0021 - The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954 - € 1.950

A December 1954 second impression of The Fellowship of the Ring, with both maps and its original unclipped second-impression dust jacket. Lower-edge staining and fading to the jacket spine are described below.

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The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954


First UK Edition, Second Impression — December 1954



Published by George Allen & Unwin, London, in December 1954, this is the second impression of the first edition of The Fellowship of the Ring, issued in the same year as the first impression of July 1954.

The publisher’s production records give a print run of 2,640 copies for this impression, with binding undertaken by Key & Whiting in December 1954.

The Reset Text



For this second impression the printer reset the text after distributing the type used for the first printing. This was done without informing Tolkien or his publisher and introduced unintended changes to words and phrases, rather than a deliberate revision by the author. A number of these errors survived into later printings and were identified only many years afterwards, giving the December 1954 impression a particular place in the textual history of The Lord of the Rings.

Binding, Maps and Dust Jacket



In the publisher’s original red cloth, with gilt lettering and decoration to the spine and a red top edge. A Part of The Shire appears opposite page 24. The 1954 version of The West of Middle-earth at the End of the Third Age is present on a folding sheet at the rear.

The book retains its original second-impression Ring-and-Eye dust jacket, based on Tolkien’s design. The jacket is unclipped, retaining the original price of 21s net, and is protected by a removable clear sleeve.

Condition



The cloth shows rubbing and wear at the extremities, with staining at the lower edge of the binding and a stain on the text block. There is pronounced browning and spotting to the endpapers, together with spotting to the page edges and lighter toning to the photographed text leaves.

Red dye from the cloth has transferred to the lower edge of the jacket. The staining and colour transfer are consistent with past damp exposure at the foot of the volume. The jacket spine is faded, with the author’s name and the wording “Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings” now very faint and difficult to read. The jacket also shows browning, creasing, tears and losses at the spine ends and edges.

No restoration is apparent. The photographs show the condition of the binding, page edges, jacket and jacket reverse in detail.

An early 1954 impression retaining both maps and its matching, unclipped original dust jacket.

Bibliographical reference: Wayne G. Hammond and Douglas A. Anderson, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography, pp. 82–99.

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Pictures (click to enlarge):
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 1
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 2
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 3
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 4
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 5
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 6
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 7
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 8
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 9
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 10
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 11
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 12
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 13
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 14
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 15
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 16
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 17
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 18
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 19
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 20
The Fellowship of the Ring — First Edition, Second Impression, December 1954, photograph 21
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