First editions, first printings of the most widely read and influential fantasy epic of all time.

The Book
"The Lord of the Rings doesn't just give us the ur [original, earliest] - text of modern fantasy; it also gives us, in its map of the western part of Middle- earth, the ur-map: the progenitor map from which the modern fantasy map design is descended. All the elements... [of ] the typical modern fantasy map can be found in the maps in The Lord of the Rings: coastlines and rivers, oblique mountains, towns and territories" (Library of Congress). The 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy set the framework upon which all subsequent epic - quest fantasy has been built.

Nevertheless, initial reviews were mixed, some thinking the narrative confused by Tolkien's use of language and detail, others thought it profound. W.H.Auden, a former pupil of Tolkien's, described it in a review as "a masterpiece", whilst the NY 'Herald Tribune' was perhaps the most prescient, stating that it was "destined to outlast our time". It quickly found a devoted following, however, and 'The Lord of the Rings' currently ranks amongst the highest selling books of any genre and among the most influential fantasy books ever published.

Printing history
'The Lord of the Rings', as a whole, was a novel of enormous size, and publishing the work in three volumes was estimated to cost the publisher
£1,000. Rayner Unwin, the biggest supporter of the novel at the firm, wrote to his father to tell him that he believed the book to be a work of genius, but it might lose the firm £1,000. Stanley Unwin replied, "If you believe it is a work of genius, then you may lose a thousand pounds".

It began life to as a sequel 'The Hobbit', but grew in scope and volume as Tolkien worked on it in stages between 1937 and 1949, and published as 'The Fellowship of the Ring' (29th July,1954, 3,000 copies); 'The Two Towers' (11th November, 1954, 3,250 copies); and the 'Return of the King', (20th October, 1955, a confident 7,000 copies).

The Maps
"I wisely started with a map, and made the story fit (generally with meticulous care for distances). The other way about lands one in confusions and impossibilities, and in any case it is weary work to compose a map from a story" (Tolkien, 'Letters').

The maps published in 'Lord of the Rings' were originally created for the author's own reference while he was writing the series to help him visualize the story. Realizing that these would be valuable to his readers as well, he decided to include a version of these maps in the published books, and enlisted the help of his son, Christopher, to do so.

The first edition of 'The Lord of the Rings' contains three maps: a general map of Middle-earth, a map of the Shire, and a detailed map showing Rohan, Gondor, and Mordor.

The toponyms on the maps reveal Tolkien's interest in ancient languages. For example, "Middle-earth" comes from the Old-English word Middangeard, which became middel-erde in Middle English. In a letter to his publisher, Tolkien translates Middangeard/middel-erde as, "the name for inhabited lands of Men 'between the seas'". He goes on to say that he uses this name to indicate that the stories of 'The Lord of the Rings' are meant to take place "in a period of the actual Old World of this planet". Tolkien goes to great pains to trace the linguistic history of his toponyms: Gondor, for example, was originally populated by Númenóreans. These peoples inhabited Middle-earth during the First Age and formed an alliance with the Elves. Because Númenóreans spoke Elvish, generally place names in Gondor are a form of Elvish. One example is Minas Tirith, which means the "tower of the guard" in Elvish.