Lord of the Rings Trilogy. No publication date

4 hours ago
2025-6-17 10:30:34 PM UTC

I have just started digging in to the mysteries and intricacies of the publication of Tolkien books and am totally baffled.

I'm trying to determine the edition/publication date of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy set. The jacket covers are unfortunately long gone.
There are no publication dates on the title pages.

It says Houghton Mifflin Company Boston
THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE

on the back of the title page it says
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

I'm going to try to sell them and don't know if there is any value to them

The Hobbit book kindly says it is Eleventh Impression 1959

I apologize in advance if I should not be asking these questions here

Mr. Underhill
Shirrif (Moderator)

1 hour ago
2025-6-18 1:37:07 AM UTC

Welcome to the site, looks like (from the two images you uploaded) that you have a US 1st edition FoTR that is anywhere from a 3rd(1955)-8th(1959) printing. These early printings of LoTR for the US market, lack any statement of printing or year and a lack of a dust jacket makes it even harder to identify in this case. Not impossible, but harder. You mentioned a 1959 Hobbit, perhaps this volume is also from the same year if they were bought together originally. Which would make it an 8th printing in that case.

A lot of the value is tied up in the condition and dust jackets on these, and a lack of them significantly decreases that value.

Lord of the Rings Trilogy. No publication date

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