Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Lord of the Rings, single volume edition, reprint, signed by the author on front pastedown, original pictorial wrappers, spine ends bumped with head slightly frayed, otherwise clean and bright, 8vo, 1972.

⁂ In January 1972, while studying at Merton College, Oxford, the consignor's father was asked to give up his room for Professor Tolkien who had been offered a room after his wife's death and needed to be on the ground floor as the elderly author could no longer manage stairs. Tolkien was appreciative and the two often met at lunch throughout 1972. When this impression of Lord of the Rings was published in Spring of that year, he bought a copy from Blackwells. At lunch he asked Tolkien to sign it for his girlfriend and, though Tolkien was grumpy because the royalties on paperbacks were less than hardbacks, the author agreed to sign it - just for him. Tolkien passed away the following year.