Tolkien, J.R.R. | The Hobbit, first edition first impression

Tolkien, J.R.R.

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1937

8vo (189 x 132 mm). Frontispiece and 9 illustrations by the author, including the two maps printed in red and black; occasional very light spotting. Publisher’s green cloth, first issue dust-jacket printed in black, green, blue, and white, designed by Tolkien with “Dodgeson” spelling on rear flap; cocked, head and foot of spine bumped with some exposure, pastedowns a little toned, spine panel of dust-jacket darkened and chipped at head and foot, edges with some creasing and short tears, joints worn and nearly detached in places.

First edition, first impression—an unrestored copy of this masterpiece of twentieth-century fantasy, complete with the rare first issue dust-jacket.

Tolkien began The Hobbit while a professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford, drawing inspiration from his childhood in rural England, the devastation of the Great War, and his deep academic engagement with Norse and Germanic philology. Though first marketed as a children’s story, the book quickly found a broader readership and sold out within three months of publication. It introduced readers to the richly imagined world of Middle-earth and launched Tolkien’s literary saga.

Tolkien’s vision was grounded in the traditions of George MacDonald, Lewis Carroll, and the Arabian Nights. He invented entire languages, histories, and mythologies, setting a new standard for modern fantasy literature. As C.S. Lewis, his Oxford colleague and close friend, wrote in his review: “The Hobbit will be funnier to its youngest readers, and only years later… will they begin to realize what deft scholarship and profound reflection have gone to make everything in it so ripe, so friendly, and in its way so true.”

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