The Hobbit or There and Back Again

London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1958. Tenth impression, second edition text. Illustrated by the author. A 1958 impression of Tolkien's first published novel, with the revised 1951 text, in the original unclipped dust jacket designed by the J.R.R. Tolkien. 315 pp. Colour frontispiece, "The Hill: Hobbiton across the Water," the only colour plate as issued in impressions of this period, with black and white illustrations throughout (earlier editions which had colour plates were removed presumably due to wartime restirctions). Thror's Map and Wilderland are printed in black and red as endpapers. Octavo, 19.5 x 13 cm. Original green cloth, spine lettered and decorated in dark blue with Tolkien's mountain and rune devices, "Allen and Unwin" at the foot. The original pictorial dust jacket has press opinions on the front flap, priced 12s. 6d. net and marked "Tenth Impression." The rear flap advertises The Lord of the Rings. First published in 1937, The Hobbit was revised by Tolkien for the second edition of 1951. He rewrote the chapter "Riddles in the Dark" so that Bilbo's encounter with Gollum, and the finding of the ring, matched the story he was then completing in The Lord of the Rings. This impression carries that revised text. It also has Tolkien's own jacket design, maps and frontispiece, so the book appears as he illustrated it. Jackets from this period of the book's publication are often missing, clipped or badly worn. Cloth bright and clean, the spine lettering sharp, with only light rubbing to the spine ends and corners. Binding square and firm. Foxing confined to the title page and to the front and rear endpapers; the rest of the text block is clean. The top edge is toned, with some spotting. The front free endpaper carries the ownership signature of Anthony Cooke and an early pencilled bookseller's price of £8.50. The dust jacket is bright on both panels, with chipping and small losses to the head of the spine panel, minor loss at the foot of the spine panel, and light creasing along the edges. The inside of the jacket is toned with scattered foxing, not visible from the outside. A tenth impression of The Hobbit in its original unclipped dust jacket, the cloth bright and the text clean apart from foxing confined to the preliminaries.…