THE HOBBIT (1st/4th Printing)
George Allen & Unwin, London, 1946. 1st Edition. Hardcover.
George Allen & Unwin, London, 1946
First Edition, Fourth Impression, 1946: A Fine/Near fine copy in the ORIGINAL EXTREMELY SCARCE DUST JACKET. War time paper book and jacket. Rare in this condition, and with the original jacket.
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 First Printing was the only printing in which all the artistic illustration plates are in black and white. 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 convert four of the author’s black and white illustration plates to color. These were initially commissioned for and later published in the American edition. [Hammond A3a.] Then both the 3rd and 4th impressions were printed using wartime paper. These first four printings of The Hobbit were all textually the same as the first printing, but after the fourth impression and beginning with the fifth impression, Tolkien changed some of the text in chapter 5 “Riddles In The Dark” to allow for a transition to his sequel trilogy “The Lord Of The Rings”. Very early printings of this title in this condition, have become extremely scarce in their original jackets.
A lovely Fine/Near Fine clean book. The boards have vibrant green cloth withOUT the common fraying or brittleness and withOUT the common age toning. Instead, the cloth is all present, and in supple condition, and overall clean and fresh in appearance. The book has sharp corners, and a square tight binding. The original decorative map end papers are present and in perfect condition, being clean and bright with no owner names, no inscriptions and no bookplates. The book is in beautiful clean condition with but some foxing to the outer page block and very top edge of the first few pages (including the title page, copyright page...), otherwise the pages are clean, crisp and flat with no handling marks, no stains, and no bent pages. A remarkably clean fresh book in excellent collectible condition. Please see all the images.
The exceedingly scarce Near Fine original 4th impression dust jacket has benefited from repair to a few intact tears and a few small chips to the outer edges. As such the dust jacket presents in near fine condition being overall bright and with strong vibrant colors, and with but only some very slight sunning to the spine (as quite common with this jacket). The jacket is neatly price clipped, but has the requisite “Fourth Impression” statement showing to the front flap. The jacket has no rips, no chips, no edgewear, no stains and no foxing, Please see the numerous detailed images.
A superb first edition, fourth impression printing in very clean condition. All images available in high resolution format upon request. The value of this copy is in the original jacket which is 10x scarcer than the book itself, and the few copies in the original jacket that come up for sale have usually instead have seen extensive restoration.
This edition contains the original version of Bilbo's encounter with Gollum, which was revised for the 1951 impression of The Hobbit, to bring it in line with, and in readiness for, the release of The Lord of the Rings. The book has been recognized as “Most Important 20th-Century Novel (for Older Readers)”, and The Hobbit was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald Tribune for best juvenile fiction of the year (1938).
ADDITIONAL IMAGES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST. Please see our store for other fantasy and SciFi titles. Fine / Near Fine. Item #3265
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Price: $29,995.00