Bilbo’s Last Song

First thus (first published by Unwin Hyman in 1990).  38pp, with colour illustrations throughout.  Pictorial boards with titling front and spine. Richly illustrated endpapers.  12mo.  Volume is neat, clean, bright and tight throughout.  In its original dust wrapper, just a little bumped on extreme edges.   Newspaper clipping regarding Pauline Baynes’ Tolkien illustrations loosely laid in.

Bilbo’s Last Song is considered by many as Tolkien’s epilogue to his classic work, The Lord of the Rings. Poignant and lyrical, it is both Bilbo’s longing to set forth on the ultimate journey and a tender farewell to his friends.  Pauline Baynes was Tolkien’s favourite illustrator.  Her jewel-like paintings for this book follow two routes – the larger illustrations depend the journey that brings the ring-bearers and the company of elves to the Grey Havens; running concurrently is a series of vignettes showing scenes from The Hobbit as Bilbo remembers his first journey.