"THE GREATEST AND MOST CONVINCING WRITER OF INVENTED WORLDS THAT I HAVE READ" (J.R.R. TOLKIEN): FIRST EDITION OF THE WORM OUROBOROS, 1922, THE "FIRST AND MOST FAMOUS WORK" OF ERIC R. EDDISON

EDDISON, E.R. The Worm Ouroboros. London: Jonathan Cape, (1922). Octavo, original gilt-stamped dark blue cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition of E.R. Eddison's classic novel, an epic "tale of magic and wizardry," whose influence "is seen in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings," featuring frontispiece and five full-page illustrations by Scottish artist Keith Henderson, an exceptional copy in the original dust jacket.

Worm Ouroboros is "a masterpiece, altogether without parallel in its grandiosity and eccentricity" (Barron, Fantasy Literature). "Still the finest heroic fantasy" (Bleiler, Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 597), it is the "first and most famous work" of Eric R. Eddison, an Icelandic scholar and English civil servant. The novel richly "contains a blend of Eastern and Western feudal, classical and modern cultures… The influence of Eddison's ornate, heavily rhythmic and archaic style is seen in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings" (Encyclopedia Britannica). "In 1957 Tolkien wrote of Eddison as 'the greatest and most convincing writer of invented worlds that I have read'" (Anderson, Tales Before Tolkien). Both were psychically devastated by WWI: "Eddison's secret immersion in the creation of a secondary world can be seen—like Tolkien's—to represent… a world before the war." The novel's evocative title is the term for the serpent that devours its own tail. Here it "represents eternal return, as the gods permit the story to loop back on itself." A classic work, it still possesses the power to "shock an audience" and inspired Eddison's subsequent Zimiamvia trilogy. In many ways "every re-reading of Eddison is a rediscovery" (Clute & Grant, Encyclopedia of Fantasy, 308, 1036). Containing frontispiece, five full-page illustrations, gilt-stamped Hippogriff covers, and dust jacket design by Scottish artist and illustrator Keith Henderson. whose works are on display in the Imperial War Museum and the National Gallery of Canada. Number 32 in Cathorn and Moorcock, Fantasy: The 100 Best Books.

Text and plates very fresh and crisp, inner paper hinges starting but sound; light edge-wear, mild toning to spine of colorful dust jacket. A highly desirable near-fine copy.