Manhattan Rare Book Company

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit…”
– The Hobbit, Chapter 1

LIKELY THE FINEST HOBBIT ONE CAN HOPE TO OBTAIN:

RARE FIRST EDITION, FIRST IMPRESSION OF TOLKIEN’S CLASSIC, WITH SCARCELY FOUND FIRST ISSUE DUST-JACKET, UNRESTORED AND IN REMARKABLY WELL-PRESERVED CONDITION.

The opening lines of The Hobbit—as Tolkien recollects in a 1955 letter to W.H. Auden, who reviewed The Fellowship of the Rings for the New York Times Book Review—were penned on an examination paper which was, very courteously in Tolkien’s estimation, left unfilled: “On a blank leaf I scrawled: ‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.’ I did not and do not know why.” (Letters, 163). While the history of The Hobbit’s origins and composition is a rich and varied story itself, this memory of the novel’s genesis is a fitting encapsulation of the many contrasts operating in Tolkien’s life and works: the academic and the artistic, the everyday and the remarkable—all contributing to the lasting fascination for Tolkien’s works around the globe nearly a century onwards.

Skilled as he was as a storyteller and visual artist, Tolkien illustrated many scenes from The Hobbit, including creating a hand-drawn dust-jacket for the work. However, there existed a number of obstacles between him and the realisation of his vision of Middle-earth. Initially his publisher Allen & Unwin had not intended to illustrate the book to keep production costs low. But after Tolkien had sent the now-famous illustrations to London, Allen & Unwin agreed to print them but in black-and-white—only producing full-colour copies of his watercolours for the second impression, after the success of The Hobbit was proven. Additionally, Tolkien’s comprehensive maps, which would eventually be used as end-papers, had to be redrawn because they incorporated too many colours—causing the publishers also to abandon his plan for “invisible lettering” to appear when Thror’s map was held up to the light (Carpenter, p. 181). Tolkien was naturally disappointed to an extent by the printing limitations that constrained his initial vision of The Hobbit’s material form. However, the concessions Tolkien and his publisher agreed upon afforded the first edition a dust-jacket and binding that could be realised in full glory. The first impression dust-jacket serves as an important marker of both Tolkien’s first chance to introduced Middle-earth to a wider public and audiences’ first glimpse into his expansive legendary world.

The first impression of The Hobbit had sold out within three months of its publication on 21 September 1937 and required a second printing before Christmas (McIlwaine, p. 289). Fine first edition, first impressions copies of The Hobbit with dust-jacket, complete and unrestored, are thus of a rarity worthy of Smaug’s mountainous treasure hoard.

TOLKIEN, J.R.R. The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1937. First edition, first impression. Octavo, 312 pp. with 10 black-and-white illustrations, 1 pl. Original green cloth stamped in blue with lettering, decorations and red-and-black cartographic endpapers by Tolkien. ORIGINAL COLOUR PRINTED DUST-JACKET of Tolkien’s hand-drawn design. Housed in a custom green morocco box. Text block with a hint of a lean, mild spot of foxing on text block edges. Cloth nearly perfect, with green remarkably bright. Dust jacket with one closed tear at base of front panel, one closed tear at top of rear panel and tiny chips at spine ends.

The dust jacket for The Hobbit is legendarily difficult to find in collectible condition, with most surviving examples now heavily chipped or heavily restored. Overall, this dust jacket is by far the finest we've seen, with only very minor wear and extraordinarily strong, vivid colours.

A STUNNING COPY OF ONE OF THE MOST BELOVED BOOKS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.

References:

Carpenter, Humphrey, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography (London: Allen & Unwin, 1977)

McIlwaine, Catherine, Tolkien: Maker of Middle Earth (Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2018)

Tolkien, J.R.R., The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. by Humphrey Carpenter (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981).

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