Saturday, 27 April 2019

Tolkien Lord of the Rings First Single Volume

This is a more in-depth look at one of my favourite ever Tolkien items. It was the first version of the Lord of the Rings I ever read and remains my favourite. In fact this single volume is one of the areas of my Tolkien collection I try to specialise in.

The version was the first release of the whole story in a single volume.

There have been quite a few editions and impressions of this version. The TolkienBooks website has full details of all the different variations of this.

Paperback versions
There are 17 Impressions of this Edition, listed here are the impressions with differences

    

*1st Impression - 1968
         

    

2nd Impression - same as previous impression

*3rd Impression - same as previous impression
See above

4th Impression - slightly smaller size
    

5th Impression - 30s cover

*6th Impression - 2 prices on spine
    

7th Impression - 2 prices on spine
    also with different price
    

*8th Impression - decimal 1.75 price only on spine

9th Impression - same as previous impression

10th Impression - 1.95 price on spine
    

1st cover variation
*11th Impression - has a larger lettering on the cover and a very different spine with 2.10 price


2nd cover variation
12th Impression - has slightly smaller lettering than the previous and the spine is also different

<need spine picture>

*13th Impression - spine price 2.10


*14th Impression (1974)

There are 3 spine variations of this impression
Spine price 2.10

Spine price 2.95 (changed)

Spine price 2.95

*15th Impression - spine price 3.95


16th Impression - same as previous impression

17th Impresson - spine 3.95
Last of this variation


2nd One Volume Edition
There are 4 impressions of this Edition

1st Impression 1st State - 1978 - has the same cover and pricing from the previous edition/impression

3rd cover variation
1st Impression 2nd State - 1978 - has the same cover but with an Unwin logo on it, the spine is also slightly different with the Unwin logo.
Price is on the back, can be 4.95 or 5.50

        

    

    

*2nd Impression - 1979
        

    

    

3rd Impression - 1979
        

    

    

*4th Impression -1982
Slightly bigger
        

    

    


Hardback versions
The Hardback books with this cover were all published by the BCA.

    

    

The first Hardback version has the same cover as the first paperback edition, as a dustcover, but the spine has BCA identification.
Binding is Brown.
    

1st Impression



2nd Impression
    

3rd Impression - BCA logo on spine


1st cover variation
The 2nd Harback version has the same cover as the 3rd paperback version, the layout on the spine is also different
This is a BCA binding of the 16th or 17th Impression paperback pages (including the printing details).
Binding is Green.
    



The 3rd Hardback version is exactly the same as the 2nd Hardback (same cover and spine), but has BCA printed pages
There are 2 Impressions (identified by reprint details)
    

2nd cover variation
The 4th Hardback version has a darker border on the cover and slightly smaller lettering
This was a single run, 1980, with a green binding
Larger size, Green Binding with different spine
    



    

The 5th Hardback version is exactly the same as the 4th but with burgundy binding. Was also issued without dust jacket.
I believe that the Tolkienbooks site is incorrect and there are 7 impressions of this version (identified by reprint details 1981,4,5,6,7,8,9)
     



Canadian Versions
1st Publication - 1968
Published by Nelson
This is the same as the UK first impression except for a few small differences as detailed by tolkienbook.us, particularly the spine
    

         

2nd Publication - 1970
Published by Methuen
Smaller with a different spine
         

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