Black and white cover of early american hobbit?

I have to say that I am not sure of the answer to this, most US Hobbit's, that are library copies, that I have seen have been rebound with a recreation of the original binding, usually with the bowing Hobbit on them.

I have never seen one with the US first edition dust-jacket?

Very interesting question and would love to learn more

I have seen a number of copies that are either the same as this one currently on eBay, or at least very similar. Wayne could probably tell you if they were actually bound with this cover originally, or if they are a library binding that was done later.

ebay: eBay Item #272303562819

Just made me look at the Wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_American_editions_of_The_Hobbit, which was quoted in the eBay sale.

"Some consider the first American edition of The Hobbit to be the most beautifully designed of any edition. Houghton Mifflin chose to print it in a larger size and on heavier stock than Allen & Unwin's first edition, and they chose to include four color plates of Tolkien's original artwork."

Did anyone really think this, or is it a bit of Wikipedia nonsense?

The UK first edition, second impression gets my vote on being a better edition, because of the damage done to Tolkien's illustrations by Houghton Mifflin in the US Hobbit first edition.

Hi Trotter,

IMO its awfully hard to be better than the UK 1st or 2nd impressions. But, I do like the larger size of the US. Made for more comfortable reading, to me. Of course the Rivendell illustration is a negative, and lacking the 'Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft Elves' a second (big) negative, but one positive is 'Bilbo awoke with the early Sun in his eyes'. Probably doesn't make up for the others, but at least a little positive. Heavier paper stock, could go either way, and I'm not a huge fan of the all red maps. So the size is only the real positive for me versus the other negatives.

All I can add to the conversation is that the Wikipedia article & author have been referenced (with praise) by the article author Steven M. Frisby in Scull/Hammond's "The Tolkien Collector" issue #30, but I have not seen one of these orange bindings myself. I will keep digging to see if I can find out more.

dunedain wrote:
Hi Trotter,

IMO its awfully hard to be better than the UK 1st or 2nd impressions. But, I do like the larger size of the US. Made for more comfortable reading, to me.

I had forgotten about that, and you are right, I also like the larger font size of the US edition

I conversed with the author of the Wikipedia article, and here is his clarification for the library binding states seen:

There are, in fact, library bindings that have a silk-screen of Hobbiton as it appears on the American first edition dust jacket and as the frontispiece. That is what “mimics the first edition dust jacket” refers to.

As for a hobbit on the front boards, I have seen library bindings with: The bowing hobbit at the upper right, as in the publisher’s front board; bowing hobbit in the center; and a sort of Dutch elf (at least, wooden shoes and Dutch boy’s garb) in the center, as in the eBay lot you referenced.

Cool. Thanks, Urulöké.

I was doing some research into a book I just purchased and I came across this thread. I believe it's a copy of the library binding that you were looking for, however it's in blue cloth. I'll attach a few photos in case anyone was still interested. The book appears to be a US first edition, third state, with the corrected Chapter VII and none of the printing errors seen in the fourth state. There are no maps in this copy but the four color illustrations are all present.