The Hobbit

Tolkien, J. R. R.

Published by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1938

A Near Fine copy of the first American printing of this iconic work of imaginative fiction. Bowing Hobbit on the title page and misprint at Chapter VII (as required for the first printing), complete with the four color plates and numerous black and white illustrations. Boards only minimally toned/soiled, very slight loss at the upper corner of the text block (possibly nibbled?), but free of previous ownership markings and likely unread. In a Good example of the scarce first American dust jacket. Jacket price-clipped and with loss along the top of the front panel and at the crown. Despite the defects, a relatively attractive and unrestored example. Housed in a custom quarter leather clamshell case with chemise. The Hobbit follows the exploits of Bilbo Baggins as he joins a company of Dwarves set on retaking their former kingdom from the dragon Smaug. A brilliant piece of writing, for any genre. The book has now been translated into fifty languages and sold a hundred million copies worldwide. "Though all is marvelous, nothing is arbitrary: all the inhabitants of Wilderland seem to have the same unquestionable right to their existence as those of our own world, though the fortunate child who meets them will have no notion and his unlearned elders not much more of the deep sources in our blood and tradition from which they spring." (C. S. Lewis for the Times Literary Supplement, Oct., 1937). Near Fine in Good + dust jacket. Seller Inventory # 7225

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Hobbit
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston
Publication Date: 1938
Condition: Near Fine
Dust Jacket Condition: Good +
Edition: First American edition.