The Lord of the Rings | First edition, 1965–1966, early impressions, signed by J. R. R. Tolkien in all three volumes.

A complete signed set of The Lord of the Rings with one of the most charming provenances we have encountered.

J. R. R. Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1965–1966.

First edition, early mixed impressions. Three volumes, each individually signed by J. R. R. Tolkien, with the folding map present at the rear of each volume. Publisher’s original red cloth, in the original dust jackets. Some light toning and tape marks to the endpapers, probably from earlier protective jacket covers; the jackets with occasional light staining and toning, principally to The Return of the King, but otherwise exceptionally well preserved.

In July 1966, Oxford Mail journalist John Ezard visited Tolkien for what became his celebrated interview, “Writers Talking - 1: The Hobbit Man”. Ezard opened the resulting article with an irresistible detail:

“A honeymoon couple I know spent last week reading it aloud to each other.”

The book was, of course, The Lord of the Rings. The honeymoon couple were Jenny and Mike Bangs, and these are their books.

Following the interview, Ezard asked Tolkien to sign the couple’s first edition set. Tolkien obliged, signing each volume individually. The books are accompanied by the original press cutting of Ezard’s article, published in the Oxford Mail on 3 August 1966, together with a typed letter signed by Ezard to Mike and Jenny in which he jokes:

“So far eight people in the office have read that opening paragraph and assumed I was talking about the Kama Sutra.”

The association gives the set a quality that is difficult to manufacture. These are not three unrelated signed volumes later assembled into a set. They belonged together from the beginning, were read together by their original owners on honeymoon, became the opening anecdote of a contemporary interview with Tolkien, and were then signed for that same couple by Tolkien himself.

That distinction matters. Individual signed volumes of The Lord of the Rings do occasionally appear, but complete sets bearing Tolkien’s signature in all three volumes are considerably scarcer. Many sets described simply as “signed” contain only one signed volume, while others have been assembled from books with entirely separate histories. Here, all three signatures belong to a single, continuous story.

By 1966 The Lord of the Rings had already become an international phenomenon. Its readership had expanded dramatically, particularly following the controversy surrounding the American paperback editions, and Tolkien was increasingly confronted with the consequences of the extraordinary world he had created. Against that background, the present set retains something wonderfully intimate: two newlyweds spending their honeymoon reading the trilogy aloud to one another, their enthusiasm finding its way into a newspaper interview with Tolkien himself.

The three original dust jackets are particularly attractive and remain unusually well preserved for books that were clearly read and enjoyed. Each volume retains its folding map, and the group is preserved with the contemporary newspaper cutting and Ezard letter documenting the circumstances around Tolkien’s signatures.

Provenance: Jenny and Mike Bangs; signed for them by J. R. R. Tolkien following John Ezard’s interview with the author in July 1966; accompanied by the original Oxford Mail cutting and typed letter signed by Ezard.

A complete three-volume set of The Lord of the Rings, signed by Tolkien in every volume, with exceptional contemporary provenance linking the books directly to Tolkien, the journalist who interviewed him, and perhaps the most charming honeymoon reading imaginable.