TOLKIEN, J. R. R.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The Hobbit or There and Back Again. First US edition, first printing, first state. The book includes four colour illustrations that were "commissioned for [the] first American edition, and were in the American publisher's hands when Allen & Unwin decided to include them in the second [British] impression. The original art was called back for reproduction in Britain, then returned across the Atlantic" (Hammond and Anderson, p. 15).The first state, among other differences, shows a hobbit wearing boots on the title page. This was replaced in the second state after Tolkien objected to the hobbit's footwear. The cloth binding has variants with and without horizontal ribbing, here without; no priority has been established. Tolkien's classic tale was published in Britain the previous year.

• Printing: first

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