Hobbit US 1st/1st

"IN A HOLE IN THE GROUND THERE LIVED A HOBBIT": FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF TOLKIEN'S CLASSIC FANTASY, WITH FOUR OF TOLKIEN'S ICONIC ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR, IN SCARCE ORIGINAL DUST JACKET

TOLKIEN, J.R.R. The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1938. Octavo, original beige cloth, cartographic endpapers, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. USD 35,000.

First American edition, in scarce original dust jacket, of the fantasy classic—"among the very highest achievements of children's authors during the 20th century" (Carpenter & Pritchard, 530)—with four of Tolkien's iconic illustrations printed in color.

Not unlike its titular protagonist—the "little fellow" Bilbo Baggins, quiet and unremarkable, who nonetheless becomes the hero of an epic adventure—The Hobbit, now widely hailed as a landmark work not only of children's literature but also of world fantasy, had a humble origin. "All I can remember about the start of The Hobbit," Tolkien would later recall in a letter to his friend W.H. Auden, "is sitting correcting School Certificate papers in the everlasting weariness of that annual task forced on impecunious academics with children. On a blank leaf I scrawled: 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.' I did not and do not know why. I did nothing about it, for a long time… but it became The Hobbit in the early 1930s."

Much more than a "fine, robustly plotted adventure story" (Fantasy and Horror 5-288), The Hobbit endures as "the outstanding British work of fantasy for children to appear between the two World Wars… All historians of children's literature… agree in placing [The Hobbit] among the very highest achievements of children's authors during the 20th century" (Carpenter & Prichard, 254, 530). It served as readers' introduction to Middle-Earth, the elaborately textured and completely convincing imaginary world that Tolkien had been creating as a private exercise since as early as 1918. "Professor Tolkien's epic of Middle Earth… [is considered] one of [the 20th] century's lasting contributions to that borderland of literature between youth and age. There are few such books—Gulliver's Travels, The Pilgrim's Progress, Robinson Crusoe, Don Quixote, Alice in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows—what else?… [Tolkien's tales of Middle-Earth are] destined to become this century's contribution to that select list of books which continue through the ages to be read by children and adults with almost equal pleasure" (Eyre, 67, 134-5). "It may have been a surprise to its publishers that a work as sui generis as The Hobbit should have been a popular success, but once it was a success there can have been no surprise in the clamor for a sequel. Tolkien had opened up a new imaginative continent, and the cry now was to see more of it" (Shippey, 49). Tolkien would, of course, go on to reveal much more in his masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings (1954-55).

First published in London by Allen & Unwin on September 21, 1937 in a first printing of only 1500 copies, The Hobbit had completely sold out by December 15. A second impression of 2300 copies was rushed to press. "Four plates of color illustrations by Tolkien are present [in the second London impression]… these had been commissioned for the first American edition, and were in the American publisher's hands when Allen & Unwin decided to include them in the second impression. The original art was called back for reproduction in Britain, then returned across the Atlantic. Tolkien thought that the color plates came out well, but was sorry that the 'Eagle picture' (Bilbo Woke Up with the Early Sun in His Eyes) was not included" (Hammond, 15). Said "eagle picture" is present in this American edition. First issue, with bowing hobbit logo on the title page. The official publication date of the second English impression is January 25, 1938; this first American edition was published on March 1, 1938, in an edition of only 5000 copies. Hammond & Anderson A3b1. Currey 385.

Book clean and very nearly fine. Scarce original dust jacket with chipping to spine ends and corners, just touching title at spine head, light edge-wear and creasing, both illustrated panels clean and quite presentable, very good.