The Lord of the Rings (Set of 3)

Ace Books, 1965. Published without Tolkien's blessing, these unauthorized Ace editions were soon afterwards discontinued, making them exceedingly rare. Includes The Fellowship of the Ring (A-4), The Two Towers (A-5), and The Return of the King (A-6).⁠
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Ace tried to be cheeky and capitalize on what they thought was a big enough loop-hole and publish the breakout series themselves, without paying Tolkien royalties for doing so... which as you can imagine, didn’t exactly go as planned. They pulled their editions from the market quickly, making these incredibly difficult to come by. Since these were the first widely available copies of the trilogy, they’re generally all in rough shape from being heavily read, making the nicer ones even more desirable.⁠

Good. All interior pages are clean and unmarked aside from one previous owner's stamp inside the front cover of book one and minor foxing to prelims of book two. The covers are still vibrant, but these books have seen some wear. Heavy edge wear and chipping to book one, with two small repairs previously done with clear tape. Faint musty odor to book two, but no signs of any mold or mildew. Book three's binding is staring to split in a few places, but all pages remain firmly attached. All page edges have some faint staining and all spines have multiple reading creases.