Farmer Giles of Ham. by TOLKIEN, J. R. R - 1949

London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd,, 1949. A well-preserved copy in the glassine First edition, first impression, of the author's fantastical fable, set in a medieval version of Oxfordshire, where Tolkien lived and worked for most of his life. Written in 1937, the year Tolkien published The Hobbit, the story describes the encounters between Farmer Giles and giants, talking dogs, and a dragon. Octavo. Original orange cloth, spine lettered in blue, dragon illustration to front cover in blue, patterned endpapers, top edge blue. With dust jacket and glassine. Two-colour frontispiece, black-and-white illustrations throughout, all by Pauline Baynes. Spine bumped, faint creases to rear cover; jacket lightly rubbed and creased, tiny nicks and a couple of short closed tears to extremities, faint pencil annotation to unclipped front flap, else bright; glassine chipped with some loss to spine ends: a very good copy in very good jacket. Hammond & Anderson A4a.