Morganmobile: Threes

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For J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings was not a trilogy. The much-anticipated follow-up to The Hobbit was supposed to be another work for children. After waiting twelve years, the publisher received something else. The Lord of the Rings ran to over 1,000 pages, an unprecedented length for fantasy literature at that time. The publisher, Rayner Unwin, who had convinced his father to publish The Hobbit, questioned whether readers would buy such a long novel. Due to high production costs and an uncertain market, the work was divided into three parts for publication.

J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973), The Lord of the Rings, 3 vols, London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1954–55. Purchased on the Elisabeth Ball Fund, 1988; PML 85924–26.