TOLKIEN, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel]. The Silmarillion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977. 8vo, 365pp. Green cloth decoratively stamped in gold and silver foil; top edge red. Two-color fold-out map at rear. Faint smudge at top edge of front free endpaper else a fine copy in original color pictorial dust jacket.

First US edition. This posthumous work by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited and presented by his son, Christopher Tolkien, delves deeply into the mythology and history of Tolkien’s beloved world of Middle-earth. From the creation of Middle-earth to the war of the Elves versus Morgoth (to whom Sauron was a servant) to the rise and fall of Numenor, The Silmarillion is a complex distillation of Tolkien’s epic, sweeping history of the First Age. A veritable Bulfinch’s Mythology of Middle-earth, each chapter could have been expanded into its own epic tale.