J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings Sold for Record $250,000

A complete three-volume set of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in first editions, first impressions has been sold by Heritage Auctions for $250,000.

The copies of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King - in original illustrated dust jackets and housed in a custom slipcase - more than doubled the previous auction record for an unsigned set of the works of $103,125 in 2021. In addition, a rare autograph manuscript note by Tolkien of a late-stage revision to The Return of the King headed 'Further correction desired' made $87,500. 
 
Other highlights included:

• a first edition, first state copy in the original dust jacket of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan of the Apes ($37,500)
• Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot, the first edition of the author’s first published book inscribed by Asimov the day after publication ($20,000), and Asimov’s first editions of the Foundation Trilogy ($10,000)
• a first edition and first printing of Frank Herbert’s Dune ($13,125)
• a first photoplay edition of The Bride of Frankenstein in its scarce dust jacket and inscribed by Elsa Lanchester, the eponymous Bride ($10,000)
• a signed limited first edition of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 bound in Johns-Manville Quinterra and stamped in red: “an asbestos material with exceptional resistance to pyrolysis” ($12,500)
• George Eliot’s Middlemarch in its original eight parts and collating complete ($75,000)
• Bram Stoker’s Dracula, first edition and first issue ($55,000)
• John Donne’s Poems (1633), the first collected edition of the poet’s work in a rare contemporary binding ($37,500)
• F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night, a first edition, first printing inscribed by the author ($27,500)
• Robert Herrick’s Hesperides, a first edition enriched with extensive manuscript notes and boasting an extraordinary provenance through some of the most important English libraries of the past two and a half centuries ($26,250)
• Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, first edition and first printing ($16,250)

“The results from this auction reflect a meaningful shift in how collectors are building great libraries today,” says Francis Wahlgren, Heritage’s Director of Rare Books & Manuscripts. “Science fiction and fantasy are no longer adjacent categories. They are central to the rare books conversation, and the world-record result for The Lord of the Rings is a powerful affirmation of that.”

The Rare Books auction realized a total of $2.1m across 610 lots.