The Shaping of Middle-earth – 1986 American Review Copy

J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien. Houghton Mifflin, Boston. First American edition, first printing.

Volume IV of The History of Middle-earth. The title and copyright pages are dated 1986 and the complete number line ends in 1. ISBN 0-395-42501-8. The contents include the earliest Silmarillion, The Quenta, The Ambarkanta, the early Annals and the first Silmarillion map.

The book is accompanied by a Houghton Mifflin review slip specifying publication on 14 November 1986 and a cloth price of $16.95. The publisher requests clippings of the review and supplies a publicity contact. The slip is protected in a sleeve, with age-toning and a small brown mark at its lower edge.

A separate folded jacket is also photographed alongside the book, inside a clear sleeve with a pale rectangular label. Its precise original role is not established by the photographs.

Black cloth binding with gilt spine lettering and orange endpapers, in a blue-purple dust jacket bearing Tolkien’s monogram. The front flap retains the $16.95 price. The jacket is housed in a clear protective cover.

The cloth shows scattered pale marks and light rubbing. The jacket has surface wear, slight creasing at the edges and visible toning to its flaps. The photographed text pages appear generally clean, with age-toning to the paper and page edges.

A first-printing American review copy with surviving publisher’s review material from the early History of Middle-earth series.

Digital photos available on request.

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