Hobbit, 1942 (6 results)

VERY EARLY EDITION, EX-LIBRARY; Lacks d/w. Sm. octavo, green cloth boards, black lettering to spine, mountain & dragon motifs to boards, illus eps - maps, frontispiece: The Hill, Hobbiton-across-the-Water, 310pp, illus, VG- (moderate rubbing & soiling to spine incl. a couple of small ink stains, light bruising to board corners/extrems, moderate cracking to front hinge, light cracking to rear hinge with light fraying to spine extrems, moderate sun-fading to spine, boards slightly cocked, two prelim pages coming slightly loose due to closed tears near spine, light foxing/discolouration to pages/page edges throughout, library stamps/markings to eps, blank prelims, colophon, top of first page of text, & spine, 2 fragments of d/w pasted in blank prelims).

Hardcover. Condition: Good. 1st Edition. A rare first Children's Book Club edition of The Hobbit using the first edition, third impression sheets by arrangement with George Allen & Unwin. With war economy standard paper. George Allen & Unwin printed 1,500 copies of a third impression and 3,000 copies to be sold by Foyles. The sheets supplied to Foyles were unbound and so the edition was published with cheap, simple boards with no map end papers. Plus a large Bilbo as the illustration on the dust jacket. Tolkien disliked the publication so much that no further book club editions were published. With thinner boards and economy paper there are few numbers of this publication to be found in a decent condition. Original yellow cloth boards with faded gilt lettering on the spine. Tiny hole on the spine. Some spotting and browning within the text. A scarce find. 8vo 310pp.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. No Jacket. 1st Edition. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1942) The Hobbit or There and Back Again , UK first book club edition using the first edition, third impression sheets, published by The Children s Book Club by arrangement with George Allen & Unwin. Condition: a near fine copy. There are no previous owners inscriptions, names, no bookplates, no stamps. The original chrome yellow boards are in nice shape with a little shelf wear and light tonong to the spine. The lettering on the spine is nicely visible with just a touch of rubbing as shown. Internally clean with no illustrations coloured in as often found. The page block with a whiff of faint foxing spots as shown, otherwise unmarked. The war economy standard paper used for this edition is preserved remarkably well. The original dust jacket is not present. Publication history: In late 1942 George Allen & Unwin printed 1,500 copies of a third impression and 3,000 copies for the children s book club to be sold by Foyles. The sheets were supplied to Foyles unbound and they were bound in cheaper boards without the dragon design familar with the regular trade edition. Also, no maps as endpapers were used. As opposed to Tolkien s own beautiful dust jacket, an orange-red wrapper showing a fat, dandified Bilbo. Tolkien loathed the design so much that it was not repeated again and this book club edition has remained an anomaly in the early publication history of the much loved childrens book. Since the boards used are much thinner and the paper the economy standard it is difficult to find copies that have survived the passage of time in decent condition if at all since book club editions tend to be unloved or discarded. First and Fine.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION, THIRD PRINTING. ONE OF ONLY 1509 COPIES PRINTED. HARDBACK BOUND IN THE ORIGINAL PUBLISHERS DECORATED CLOTH BINDING WITH THE ORIGINAL MAP DECORATED ENDPAPERS TO FRONT & REAR, A COMPLETE COPY WITH THE COLOUR FRONTIS PLATE + 8 x BLACK & WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS OF WHICH 7 x ARE FULL PAGE & ONE AMONG TEXT. BOOK MEASURES APPROX 8 x 5 INCHES WITH 310 PAGES + THE ORIGINAL TWO SIDED PUBLISHERS CATALOGUE TO REAR. FEW VERY MINOR MARKS TO CLOTH COVER WITH A COUPLE OF MINOR CREASES TO CLOTH AT MIDDLE OF FRONT BOARD, FEW SMALL INDENTATIONS TO CLOTH SPINE, VERY SMALL TEAR TO CLOTH AT TOP OF REAR OUTER HINGE, VERY MINOR MARKS TO EDGES OF REAR BOARD, SMALL XMAS INSCRIPTION TO FRONT MAP ENDPAPER DATED 1943, FAINT SMALL PENCIL SCRIBBLE TO FRONT BLANK ENDPAPER, VERY OCCASIONAL LIGHT FOXING OR MINOR CREASE TO PAGE CORNERS, FEW MARKS TO PAGE FORE-EDGE WITH MARGINAL MARKS TO REAR CATALOGUE PAGE. OVERALL IN VERY GOOD CONDITION WITH MAJORITY OF PAGES CLEAN. EXTRA POSTAGE MAY APPLY FOR OVERSEAS ORDERS. ALL BOOKS ARE POSTED IN A STURDY BOOK BOX.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. First Edition, Third Impression, 1942 A very clean copy with unrestored bright clean boards. The first printing of The Hobbit was issued on 21st September 1937 with a print run of only 1500 copies. The book was an immediate success and sold out within months. The second impression was printed in December the same year in an edition of 2300 copies (423 of which were destroyed at the warehouse of the binder Key and Whiting in the bombing of London on November 7th 1940) and was the first printing to include the author?s one color plate, initially commissioned for and later published in the American edition. [Hammond A3a. ] In late 1942, Allen & Unwin printed 1,500 copies of a third impression. Arguably more scarce than a 1st/1st, with few having survived due to a warehouse fire during the war, and the fact that they were printed on the standard cheap wartime paper. To this end we have only spotted two other third printings, one with an original jacket, listed for $56,000.00; and one other inferior 3rd printing copy without the jacket listed for $12,500. Today first/firsts are selling for $140,000 and up in an original jacket. This unrestored book is in near fine/very good plus condition for the Third Impression. The boards are clean and bright with strong vibrant unfaded deep blue details. Slight toning and rubbing to the cloth with a few area with very small discolorations. Square, but slightly rounded corners. The original end papers are present and clean and bright with no owner names, no bookplates and no bookstore stamps. The internal pages are remarkably clean and bright, with no handling marks, no stains, no foxing, and no bent pages. Lacking the dust jacket. Please see all the images. A superb very early printing in very clean condition.ADDITIONAL IMAGES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST. Please see our ABE store for landmark SciFi and Fantasy first printings.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. We are thrilled to offer the most unique set of books in our 21 years as a specialist Tolkien dealer, the first four editions of the Hobbit in the original near fine, unrestored condition. Only once before have all four been available. See our website for the links. Allen & Unwin 1st/1st 1937, 1st/2nd 1937, 1st/3rd 1942 and 1st/4th 1946 printings. If you are seriously interested in such a purchase, you already know their importance and publishing history. 1st/1st Hobbits, if they appear, now exceed £230,000, but most of these have restoration seriously reducing their value. The 2nd,3rd and 4th with unrestored dustjackets once appeared fairly regularly, but we have not seen them for many years, except with restored jackets. These go into collections, including legacy libraries and never come out! Regular Tolkien follows and experienced collectors know how rare these now are and will remain so, forever. One of the significant features of the first ten or so printed Hobbits was the text was changed to align it as the prequel to The Lord of the Rings. The first four Hobbits were the original text with gradual modifications until the first printing 1951 2nd edition Hobbit with major changes to chapter five among others. Goblins became Orcs for example. So few of the 1942 dust jackets exist, it was thought for a time they were produced without them due to paper shortages during the war. The 1st/1st Hobbit used no colour illustrations, the 1st/2nd and later used colour. The 3rd and 4th were printed on war-time paper making the books half the thickness, with full sized dustjackets, but the cheap paper made the jackets subject rapid wear and damage especially the 3rd printing. These are just some of the features of the first four. The Hobbit as the authors first book enjoys a much wider collector/investor audience than The Lord of the Rings or his other classic titles making them even more scarce. General first edition collectors add them to modern libraries. J.R.R. Tolkien books are now solidly in the investor asset class of rare literature, not simply passing pop culture. With new films coming and talks of theme parks Tolkien books are poised for new price highs, potentially limitless with unprecedented demand. We can see rare condition sets like these eventually exceeding a million dollars. This is similar to other classic children?s books like the first printings of Alice and Wonderland. We must stress the rarity is the unrestored jacket aspect of these books, not simply that they are the first edition printings. Authentic collectors value original state and the few examples do come on the market have more and more restoration. This only makes these unrestored originals exponentially more valuable. Please note, these may be withdrawn or postpone from sale due to new media interest. We will deliver these to the buyer anywhere in the world, for an added travel fee. Please inquire into additional condition details and more photos. Please, serious inquiries only. We are one the leading and largest specialty Tolkien dealers with over 21 years. We ONLY deal in Tolkien so have to get it right every time, unlike general book dealers. Take some time to research our company Festival Art and Books, our events, Festival in the Shire and our founder and Tolkien expert. Mark D. Faith. Please ask about our free The Tolkien Collectors Guide a monthly newsletter on Tolkien book collecting. We were recently asked whether investors have taken over the Tolkien books market? While prices are rising at every level due to high demand and scarce supply, nearly all our high end customers are equally keen Tolkien fans. They collect what they can afford just like the rest of us! The more famous insist we keep their Tolkien fandom confidential! When we started our business 20 years client discretion was paramount! Nobody then wished to come out of the Tolkien fan closet.