| The Hobbit is J.R.R. Tolkien’s first publication set in his ‘Secondary World’ of Middle-earth. “Mr Baggins began as a comic tale among conventional and inconsistent Grimm’s fairy-tale dwarves, and got drawn into the edge of it – so that even Sauron the terrible peeped over the edge” (Letters by J.R.R. Tolkien, #19). In 1938, The Hobbit was published in the United States by the Houghton Mifflin Company (following the British release in 1937). This First Edition included Tolkien’s nine illustrations in black and white and four in color, two of which were also used for the dust-jacket.
In 1951 a Second Edition was published. This incorporated a significant revision to the fifth chapter, ‘Riddles in the Dark’, in order to support The Hobbit’s connection to the forthcoming release of The Lord of the Rings. Additionally, Houghton Mifflin began using Tolkien’s original dust-jacket design, previously used solely for the British edition. The Hobbit has remained in print ever since with the continuous publication of hundreds of varying editions and translations. |
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