The Return of the King (1955)

A first impression of The Return of the King has no impression statement on the copyright page. Later impressions say Second impression, Third impression and so on, so the absence of that line is the first thing to check.

George Allen & Unwin published The Return of the King, the final volume of The Lord of the Rings, on 20 October 1955. The three volumes share the same look:

• Binding: red cloth with the spine lettered in gilt.
• Map: a folding map tipped in at the rear of the volume.
• Jacket: a typographic design built from Tolkien's Ring, Eye and Tengwar motifs, priced 21s net on the front flap.

Two traps catch buyers. First, American Houghton Mifflin copies were made from Allen & Unwin sheets with an altered imprint, so check that the title page carries the Allen & Unwin imprint. Second, a set is often made up from volumes of different impressions. Check each volume separately rather than assuming a matching set.

The first printing was small by later standards, but sources count it differently: some include the sheets sent to America and some do not. We have not quoted a figure until we can check it against Hammond's bibliography.

The Return of the King has its own text points, including damaged type on page 49 in some copies, but the sequence of those states is disputed and all were published together. We have not used them to rank copies.

Condition matters a great deal. Jackets are often chipped at the spine ends and faded on the spine panel, and the folding maps are easily torn.

Sources: Bonhams and Lucius Books catalogues, tolkienbooks.net and tolkienlibrary.com, following Hammond.