TCG Letter #2126

When The Hobbit was published back in September, 1937, Tolkien had sent a signed first edition to his family friend, Katherine Mary. ^{Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to K. M. (Katherine Mary) Kilbride • c. 21 September 1937 (#1980)[1]} She had lent the book to a child who had scarlet fever and the book was destroyed. She writes to Tolkien asking if he would sign a second printing for her if she sent one to him.

Hammond and Scull note that: "A first printing of The Hobbit inscribed to K.M. Kilbride and with an added manuscript verse by Tolkien in Anglo-Saxon (partly derived from one in The Lost Road) was sold by Sotheby’s New York on 13 December 2002. Either Kilbride managed to find a first printing to send to Tolkien, or Tolkien somehow still had a copy to spare."^{Chronology, p. 845[2]}