The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary Edition » (50th Anniversary Edition)

It seems an unlikely formula for success: an Oxford professor of Anglo-Saxon, and a book that begins with a little man who lives in a hole in the ground. But The Hobbit, followed by The Lord of the Rings, created the modern genre of heroic fantasy and made J.R.R. Tolkien one of the most widely-read authors in the world.

The Fellowship of the Ring, part one of J.R.R. Tolkien s epic masterpiece, ?rst reached these shores on October 21, 1954, arriving, as C. S. Lewis proclaimed, "like lightning from a clear sky." Fifty years and nearly one hundred million American readers later comes a beautiful new one-volume collector s edition be?tting the stature of this crown jewel of our list. With a text fully corrected under the supervision of Christopher Tolkien to meet the author s exacting wishes and two large-format fold-out maps, a ribbon placemarker, and exceptionally elegant packaging, this edition is one of the finest we ve ever produced.